The Polish government has signed an agreement with the country’s liquefied natural gas terminal operator Polskie LNG to co-finance the expansion of the facility.
The office of the prime minister, through its social media channels, said the facility is part of the European Union’s energy policy to improve the security of natural gas supply and increase market competitiveness.
The European Commission added in its statement it will support the extension of the President Lech Kaczyński terminal in Świnoujście with €128 million ($143.5 million) from the European Regional Development Fund.
Polish LNG terminal is the only facility of its size in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe.
Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Creţu said, “The extension of the Świnoujście terminal will help diversify natural gas supply sources and improve the country’s energy security.”
The terminal expansion includes three key projects; the construction of the third LNG storage tank, delivery of additional process installations increasing the regasification capacity to 7.5 billion cubic meters per year, and the LNG transshipment installation together with a railway siding.
The current investment comes on top of more than €250 million of Cohesion Policy funds already invested in the terminal and more than €2 billion invested in Polish energy infrastructure since 2007. The terminal expansion project is on the European list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI).
Together with the ‘Baltic Pipe’ project, for which a €215 million EU grant was signed just last week, the new LNG terminal in Świnoujście will open Poland’s gas market to new suppliers enhancing the diversity and security of energy sources in Poland.
The Baltic pipe will allow, as of 2022, the shipment of gas from the North Sea to the Polish market and further to the Baltic States and neighboring countries. At the same time, the pipeline will enable the supply of gas from Poland, via the LNG terminal, to the Danish and Swedish markets.