font_preload
PL / EN
Energy Nuclear 27 March, 2023 8:56 am   
COMMENTS: Joanna Słowińska

Polish Briefing: Will non-Russian oil finally go to Germany via Poland? I PGE’s expectations about EU energy reform

IMG_20221111_135538_693_2-1536×991 Schwedt Refinery. Picture by Aleksandra Fedorska

What goes in Poland on 27th of March.

Schwedt refinery is expected to get oil from Gdańsk in May, but what about derusification?

According to Suddeutsche Zeitung, 350,000 tons of non-Russian oil will be delivered to the Schwedt refinery in Gdańsk in May. However, Poland’s condition for this to happen is Germany depriving Russia’s Rosneft of shares in the Schwedt Refinery, which is yet to happen.

The Schwedt refinery in East Germany abandoned oil supplies from Russia in 2023, but Russia’s Rosneft still has 54 percent shares in the facility. Poles agreed to deliver oil via the Naftoport in Gdańsk, but on the condition that the Schwedt would be derusified. This has not yet happened, because on March 14, Germany extended the board of trustees for another six months, without deciding about the future of Rosneft. Its assets are currently under the control of the Bundesnetzagentur.

“The board of trustees works and so does the cooperation with Poland,” said State Secretary at the Economy Ministry Michael Kellner, quoted by Suddeutsche Zeitung. Schwedt refinery authorities say they would need 2.5 years to build a second pipeline to the Rostock oil port to get supplies from outside Russia without having to use the facility in Gdańsk. If the reports about the availability of the Naftoport in Poland are confirmed, this move will not be necessary.

Suddeutsche Zeitung / Wojciech Jakóbik

Buk: EU energy market reform should promote large power plants

Wanda Buk, responsible for regulations at Polska Grupa Energetyczna, spoke at the Energy Post event dedicated to energy market reform. PGE is demanding contracts for difference that prefer large generation capacities.

“We need more flexibility in contracts for difference and how they affect the market position,” said Wanda Buk about the part of the reform, which involves financing new investments in renewable energy and nuclear energy. PGE intends to build offshore wind farms and nuclear reactors in cooperation with the Korean KHNP. A contract for difference is a form of financing where an additional fee is added to the end-users’ bills that finances the price guaranteed in the contract. It is a form of financing offshore wind energy in Poland in the Offshore Act.

According to Wanda Buk, contracts for difference should prefer large generation capacities for energy security reasons. “They should take into account power ranges and support large capacities,” she said at the Energy Post conference. The reform of the energy market in the European Union was proposed in March by the European Commission. It includes, inter alia, securing new investments in the necessary generation capacity with contracts for difference.