Market research has shown a lack of sufficient interest in access to a floating gas port in the Gulf of Gdańsk. The first FSRU will be leased to meet the demand in Poland, mostly to decarbonize district heating.
The procedure for binding open season market research on FSRU2 started in July 2023. The goal was to verify if in the region where Poland is located there were enough clients to warrant an additional 4.5 bcm a year of LNG and getting a second FSRU, which could be stationed in the Gulf of Gdańsk in addition to the first unit, whose capacity has been already booked by Poland’s Orlen.
The first FSRU’s capacity is 6.1 billion cubic meters a year. FSRU2 did not collect enough orders, although it was supposed to re-export gas through Poland to its neighbors, such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia or Hungary. These counties are one of the last recipients of fossil fuels from Russia. The REPowerEU plan envisages abandoning fossils from Russia by 2027.
Poland’s TSO Gaz-System is conducting a tender for the provision of the FSRU. According to media reports, two companies are still in the game – Korea’s BW Group and Japan’s Mitsui. The lack of interest in FSRU2 will likely mean ordering one instead of two units. The leasing of the first FSRU makes sense as district heating based on coal is supposed to be replaced with gas.
Wojciech Jakóbik