Europeen Oil - Europe Oil News Monitor Subscribe to download Archive
Subscribe to download Archive

Poland presents timetable for ending Russian energy imports by 2023

Poland's Turow coal-fired power station.
Poland's Turow coal-fired power station.

Poland will phase out imports of Russian coal, oil and gas in steps by the end of 2022, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on March 30.

Poland is setting an example that other EU member states should follow, Morawiecki said. Since the outbreak of Russia’s war against Ukraine, Poland has intensified calls on the EU to wean itself off Russian energy commodities, which feeds Putin’s “war machine”.

“We have been persuading not for several weeks, not for several months, but for several years, to take Putin's blackmail tools from his arsenal. Today, this tool of blackmail has also turned into a tool of war,” Morawiecki said.

“That is why we call on everyone in Europe to follow in our footsteps,” the PM added.

Poland is one of the EU’s biggest consumers of Russian oil and gas. Imports from the east covered nearly 47% of Poland’s gas demand and just over 64% of oil demand in 2020, Forum Energii, a think tank, said recently. Coal played a smaller role at 15% of the overall use.

In line with the plan, which Morawiecki said was “the most radical in Europe,” Poland will end buying Russian coal by May. The end of Russian oil and gas imports will come by the end of the year.

Ending coal and gas imports will be relatively easy. Coal imports from Russia serve mostly to cover heat demand from households and as the heating season is about to end, Poland should have sufficient time to find new suppliers. In the longer run, however, it will have to invest in energy efficiency and alternative sources of energy for heating. 

For gas, Poland is about to complete the Baltic Pipe, a gas link from Norway to Poland that will replace gas imported under a contract with Gazprom. The contract expires at the end of the year and Poland has long said it will not renew it. 

Between the Baltic Pipe, LNG imports from the US and Qatar via the terminal in Swinoujscie, and domestic production, Poland’s gas demand can be met even under the assumption that gas use will grow overall at the expense of coal.

On oil, Poland will use its oil terminal in Gdansk, which can handle 36mn tonnes of crude oil annually – clearly more than 26mn tonnes consumed each year. Polish oil companies, PKN Orlen and Lotos, will also not prolong their crude oil supply contracts with Russia that expire by early 2023. 

Poland has lambasted Germany and recently even its close ally Hungary for lack of effort in ending their dependence on Russian energy imports, which translates into opposition against an EU-wide embargo on them. 

Both Berlin and Budapest say that a fast cut-off from Russian coal, oil, and gas would be economically detrimental. In Hungary, the issue is also highly political ahead of this week’s election, which the incumbent PM Viktor Orban hopes to win.

To make its energy sector more resilient to the switch away from Russian fossil fuels, Poland is also updating in long-haul energy policy, assuming faster growth in renewables and confirming the role of nuclear power. 

Morawiecki also appealed to the European Commission to introduce a tax on Russian hydrocarbons.