Poland aims for energy independence within five years: deputy PM

Mateusz Morawiecki's comments follow American President Donald Trump's visit to Warsaw last week. Poland is eyeing more purchases of US gas following the delivery of a one-off consignment in June.

“The government policy of diversifying gas supplies means we will be getting an ever larger group of suppliers,” Morawiecki said.

Poland has been purchasing gas from Qatar since its Liquefied Natural Gas terminal in northwestern Świnoujście was opened in late 2015, Warsaw is in talks about a proposed Baltic Pipe to supply Poland from the North Sea, while the Croatian president has said a planned gas terminal on the island of Krk would be linked to Poland's Świnoujście terminal.

“Within the next five years we want to lead to Poland's full energy independence,” Morawiecki said.

“Today we are bound to the Russian [gas] monopoly [Gazprom] by a bad deal, we pay more for gas supplies than Germany,” Morawiecki said, adding that US gas would be competitively priced.

But he said that Poland's ambitions largely hinge on the Three Seas initiative, which aims to boost cooperation among 12 Central European, Baltic and Western Balkan countries, under which the first logistics and transport deals were signed during a recent summit in Warsaw.

“As the largest country in Central and Eastern Europe, naturally we think about our responsibility to the energy security of not only Poland but also the remaining countries of the Three Seas initiative and, for example, Ukraine,” Morawiecki said.

“We want to be a partner which will, in real terms, bring about the diversification of energy supplies for all countries in our region.” (vb/pk)

Source: PAP