Tuesday 3 March 2015
Delays of the construction of LNG terminal in Swinoujscie
The LNG terminal, which is being constructed in
Swinoujscie, has been closely examined by the Supreme Chamber of Control ( in
Polish: Najwyzsza Izba Kontroli, NIK). NIK has been preparing report on the
emerging strategic investment in Swinoujscie, which seem to not be very
positive. Inspectors note that the LNG terminal has not been put to use, yet
and the plan for its opening is constantly rescheduled: from the end of June last year, as originally
planned, to the end of 2014, as it was written in the annex to the new agreement.
Currently, the terminal is still not in use. Due to all those factors, there is
a high risk of loss of EU subsidies for the construction of this terminal.
Problems with gas terminal in Swinoujscie mean that
Poland is still not able to receive deliveries of liquefied gas and send it to
customers after regasification. According to NIK, the main reason of the delay
was dispute between the Transportation Technical Supervision (TDT) and
contractor (General Contractor of Investment). It boiled down initially to
determine which sections of pipelines are subject to statutory inspection of
TDT, which only conformity assessment (certification). NIK noted that during
construction of the terminal, TDT played “double role”, which created a situation of
conflict of interest. TDT performed statutory inspection tasks in relation to
the contractor (General Contractor) in terms of technical supervision and, at
the same time, paid contractor (General Contractor) to perform the inspection
for him, on the basis of a civil contract, to assess compliance with the
technical requirements of equipment (certified the device within the terminal).
According to NIK, another reason for the delays was
the bankruptcy of companies belonging to the PBG (one of the consortium members
of General Contractor; later mentioned as Gaz-System and PLNG). NIK said that
Gaz-System and PLNG did not pursue their tasks in accordance with the approved
schedule. Two of the four investment projects (LNG terminal and pipeline
Swinoujscie-Szczecin) have been significantly delayed due to a number of
irregularities, which mainly consisted of: ineffective supervision carried out
by Gaz-System and PLNG in relation to contractors, ineffective enforcement by
Gaz-System and PLNG from contractors proper and timely perform its obligations
under the contract; mistakes made by Gaz-System and PLNG at the conclusion of
annexes to the agreements with contractors.
The report also criticizes the supervision of the
process of building an LNG terminal on the part of the relevant ministries. As
a result, LNG terminal has not been put into operation yet, not at the end of
June last year, as originally planned, to the end of 2014, as it was written in
the annex to the new agreement.
According to controllers who wrote the report, trouble
with the opening of the terminal bear the risk of loss of EU funds, used to
co-finance the investment. NIK also recalls that the gas terminal delay
postpones start receiving LNG supplies – the risk which is currently out of the
picture, as the dialogue with Qatargas, the supplier of LNG, has been concluded
positively (there are no additional fines for the lack of gas received).
To add up the controversies surrounding construction
of the terminal, Ministry of Treasury wanted the NIK’s report to not be
publicly available. Ministry’ spokeswoman Agnieszka Jablonska-Twarog in an
interview with IAR explained that this was due to the ongoing financial
negotiations with another contractor terminal, which obliged involved sides to
not publically speak about financial statement of the investment.
At the moment, the official statement of the
government relates to the final, safe end of the construction of the terminal,
rather than keeping the deadlines – as pointed out by the Minister of Economy,
Janusz Piechocinski.
It is said that the terminal should be fully
operative by the end of 2015.
Based
on:
Picture:
http://www.thenews.pl/3d358b33-43db-46bf-a85e-f057f2f998a0.file
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