The section of the Yamal gas pipeline in Poland enters a new mode of operation, taking into account the possibility of reacting in case of problems with gas transmission at the border with Germany.
On May 11, the President of the Energy Regulatory Office issued a decision to change the Transmission System Operation and Maintenance Code of the Polish section of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline system (SGT), as Gaz-System has reported. These are the rules of operation of the Yamal gas pipeline section in Poland. It stretches from Russia through Belarus to Germany and currently does not pump gas, because the Russians stopped deliveries in the spring of 2022 in violation of the Yamal contract. The deal first ceased to be implemented and then expired at the end of the year. There is a court dispute over the claims of Russian Gazprom against Polish PGNiG for undelivered gas, a pattern similar throughout Europe at the time of the energy crisis fueled by the Russians. This means, for example, that the physical entry point to the gas grid in Poland called Kondratki on the border with Belarus is not used. „The entries relating to the entry point of Kondratka into the SGT were removed in connection with the withdrawal of the Kondratka point,” the statement said.
The change in the operating regime of the Yamal gas pipeline in Poland is also a response to the provisions of the entrustment agreement of August 29, 2022, which designates Poland’s Gaz-System as the operator of Yamal, as well as suggestions from system users. „In this regard, among other things, the entries relating to the user of the system or the user of the transit gas pipeline system have been removed,” the decision reads. The changes also affect the rules on connecting to Yamal, technical requirements and quality parameters.
The reverse flow on the Yamal is also to function on the basis of the new rules. When the import from Russia was still in place, the deliveries from east to west via the Yamal could be replaced with transmissions in the opposite direction as part of the so-called reverse flow. This will be replaced by a virtual feedback service that will allow to account for gas delivered physically in a different direction, at points it cannot reach. This will increase access to Yamal’s gas. The virtual point will henceforth be a place for gas trading available to interested parties.
The Office’s decision also introduces the provisions of the European Commission regulation 2017/459 on the network code, which regulate access to the capacity of the Yamal gas pipeline in Poland, which will be made available on an intermittent basis for different time intervals (hourly, daily, monthly, quarterly, annually), if it is not available on a continuous basis, that is, when there is no guarantee that physical transmission in the opposite direction will not interrupt them.
The regulator’s decision also determines when an operator may restrict access to the Yamal or interrupt transmission. The Office is also to be informed if Yamal’s capacity is used to collect mandatory gas reserves outside Poland (presumably Germany, where Yamal leads) for other needs. „In a situation where the daily amount of natural gas allocated to a given SUP (customer supplying or receiving gas- ed.) at the entry point of SGT Mallnow (reverse on the border with Germany- ed.) and the starting point of the interconnection point (connecting Yamal with the rest of the transmission system in Poland- red.) is greater than the sum of the allocated capacity in all hours of a given gas day, decreased by the capacity reserved for the delivery of the total amount of mandatory reserves of natural gas maintained outside the territory of the Republic of Poland,” the decision said. The ticket service within the framework of the regulations allows one to collect mandatory supplies also outside Poland.
The implementation of the new regulations also serves to monitor the accumulation of mandatory gas reserves accumulated throughout the European Union in response to the energy crisis fueled by Gazprom, and in Poland regulated by the law on reserves. „In the case mandatory stocks need to be released in accordance with the Law on Stocks, the obligation to supply natural gas constituting a mandatory stock maintained by a contractor outside the territory of the Republic of Poland is fulfilled by submitting a nomination at the entry point of the Mallnow SGT and the exit point of the interconnection, with an hourly value corresponding to at least one thousand twelve hundredth (1/1200) part of the volume of the mandatory stock, subject to recognition that the mandatory stocks have not been delivered to the territory of Poland,” the decision said. The point is that the transfer of gas from stocks held outside Poland through the Mallnow point is to be carried out at an appropriate hourly rate, because otherwise it will be possible to conclude that the stocks have not been delivered and the legal obligation has not been fulfilled, for which there are certain consequences.
The owner of the EuRoPol gas pipeline with half of Gazprom’s shares was sanctioned after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and placed under a trusteeship by the Polish government to ensure security of supply. In the past, there has been speculation about the availability of gas at the Mallnow point on the border with Germany. The EU SOS security of supply regulation lays out the sharing of gas stocks in the event of a crisis. The Office’s decision strengthens the possibilities of acting on the Polish side in relation to Yamal-Europe on the territory of Poland, which according to Gaz-System’s plans is to become a normal part of the transmission system.
Wojciech Jakóbik