Gas energy with Gazprom is a threat of blackout. Baltic Pipe will change it

Energy industry is increasingly choosing gas. PGNiG wants to ensure market conditions of supply so that the development of gas energy will not end in blackout.

The President of PGNiG Piotr Woźniak said at the European Economic Congress in Katowice that because of one contract with Russian Gazprom, his company can not use “all market freedoms” that other companies in Europe, especially the Western ones enjoy.

– No jokes. Within two years from 2015 to 2017, the gas market in Poland increased by almost 2 billion cubic meters annually from 15,3 to 17 billion cubic meters. This year is growing even more dynamically. Such market growth has not been recorded anywhere in Europe for years – said Woźniak. In his opinion, there is an organic increase in consumption and electricity, which has made a number of decisions about new gas blocks. It is about investments of PKN Orlen in Włocławek and Płock and in Dolna Odra belonging to PGE.

– We need to bring order to the gas supply system. Poland does not have any deposits that could be launched. We do what we can as PGNiG – said Woźniak. – The market will rise above it. We need to refine the market rules of gas trading and market access to external resources, because domestic ones are not enough, in a good algorithm, so that we do not have to bear consequences in the event of any market disturbance.

– You do not know about all delivery problems because there was no need to do so. If there is a shortage of gas, it is missing for the industry that uses it as a raw material. At the moment when it would run out of gas in units generating electricity, we are dealing with a blackout, and this can not be allowed under any circumstances. We are on the right track – convinced the panelist, mentioning the Baltic Pipe project, which will be independent of the traditional supplier, the Russian Gazprom.

– A final investment decision is to be made this year. From that moment until 2022, we will be able to provide systemic deliveries from suppliers who have no supply interruptions in their history, as in the case of suppliers in the North Sea – said Woźniak.

– It will be Polish gas. It will always be cheaper than another gas in international circulation – he concluded. According to the CEO, Russian Gazprom “mocks Baltic Pipe”, but this project is to ensure “competitive gas prices” that will allow the company to compete in the market deprived of the last non-market factor, i.e. the Yamal contract with the Russian supplier.