By Marynia Kruk
WARSAW--Polish gas firm PGNiG SA (PGN.WA) can receive its first
contracted shipments of liquefied natural gas at some other
regasification point in the world in the event the planned launch
of Poland's LNG terminal on the Baltic coast is delayed beyond
2014, a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street
Journal.
According to reports in local media, the construction is several
months behind schedule due to financial difficulties faced by the
general contractors on the government-owned project, Italy's Saipem
SpA (SPM.MI) and Poland's PBG SA (PBG.WA). PBG in June filed for
bankruptcy protection, though the terminal's owner, wholly
state-owned Polskie LNG, said it isn't making provisions for a
start date beyond the end of 2014.
State-controlled PGNiG signed an agreement with Qatargas, the
top exporter of liquefied natural gas, in 2009 to receive annual
shipments of 1.6 billion cubic meters of LNG starting in 2014
through to 2034 as part of Poland's strategy to diversify its
energy supply sources away from Russia.
This agreement enables PGNiG to send its contracted LNG tanker
to other terminals, the person said.
PGNiG has a parallel agreement with Polskie LNG, the owner of
the under-contruction Baltic terminal, for regassification services
from July 1, 2014 to Dec. 31, 2014, said Polskie LNG spokesman
Maciej Mazur.
That provides some wiggle room in case the LNG terminal official
grand opening--agreed as June 30, 2014, with the terminal's general
contractors--hits a few months of delays, Mr. Mazur said.
"June 30 continues to be our deadline, but our priority right
now is quality, not time," he added. "One to three months of delay
won't have an effect because we have flexibility."
In its initial phase of operation, the Polish LNG terminal will
have the capacity to receive 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas
per year.
"We're not considering [a delay past the end of 2014] because we
hope we won't have to," Mr. Mazur said.
He added he could imagine PGNiG could redirect its first
shipment of Qatari LNG to the Gate Terminal in Rotterdam, but that
he didn't have any first hand information on the matter.
-Write to Marynia Kruk at marynia.kruk@dowjones.com