Poland will add a second regasification vessel at the floating liquefied natural gas terminal it is building in Gdansk amid ample interest from shippers, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday.
"The commercial interest in the terminal is big enough for the project not to require budget involvement," Tusk told reporters ahead of a cabinet meeting in Warsaw.
With two terminals on the Baltic and a portfolio of LNG contracts, Poland aims to become a hub for deliveries of fuel from the US to the region, including Ukraine and Slovakia.
Interest from market participants will enable Polish gas pipeline operator Gaz-System to proceed with the project. The company said on Tuesday it had decided to boost the capacity of the second floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) to 6.1 billion cubic metres of gas per year from the initially planned 4.5 bcm.
Poland's top oil and gas company Orlen said it had booked 16 slots at the facility, while energy trader Unimot has reserved 12 slots starting in 2030. Utility PGE said it had booked regasification capacity for 15 years for an estimated PLN2.8 billion ($745 million).
With two FSRU units in Gdansk and the existing terminal in Swinoujscie, Poland will be able to import over 20 bcm of LNG per year, rising to nearly 50 bcm annually from 2030, Gaz-System said.
(Reporting by Marek Strzelecki, Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk and Pawel Florkiewicz. Editing by Mark Potter)
