Thursday, 14 January 2016
BP's operations in Poland not to be affected by global employment cuts
Past Tuesday (Jan 12,2016) BP
announced plans to ask four thousand employees worldwide to leave the company,
due to falling oil prices. Until the end of 2017, employment in the vertical
exploration and production (upstream), is planned to be reduced from 24
thousand to 20 thousand people. In the same time, BP in Poland has plans for
maintaining its market share, without employment reduction.
The approach BP takes in Poland
differs mainly due to the fact that its operations there are limited to the
re-selling (petrol stations and petrochemicals distribution). As USA Today noted “During a townhall event at its
Aberdeen office in northern Scotland Tuesday, BP said 600 of the cuts would
take place at it operations in the North Sea, or the swath of ocean between the
U.K. and the rest of Western Europe” – locations where BP either explores
raw material or pursues the direct management of the resources.
Piotr Pyrich, general director of
the Polish branch of BP Europa SE was asked if the reduction in the employment
in the upstream operations will affect re-selling, confirmed on Wednesday (Jan
13,2015) that the company has plans for further development in retail sector in
Poland. "Poland is one of the few European countries that continuously
maintains economic growth. We want to participate in this development, opening
every year after dozens of gas stations and investing an average of about 100
million dollars per year"- he said in an interview with Polish Press
Agency.
Pyrich emphasized that BP wants
to maintain its status as the second largest owner of the petrol station
network in our country (the first position is kept by Orlen). At the moment,
the company owns 500 stations in Poland (500th petrol station has been opened
in December 2015).
According to Pyrich, the company
will invest both in its own facilities and a network of partner stations. The
main focus of the company are petrol stations with the direct closeness to
motorways and express roads.
Furthermore, BP will develop
business related to the sale of aviation fuel as part of a joint venture
company established together with Lotus. The company provides fuel at airports
in Gdańsk, Warsaw, Katowice and Lublin. "The Polish market of fuel and air
is one of the most dynamic in Europe" - he stressed. BP will also be
present in the bitumen sales.
Based on:
- http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/01/12/bp-cut-4000-jobs-globally-oil-prices-drop/78673652/
- http://m.onet.pl/biznes/branze/energetyka-i-surowce,c4ygc
- http://biznes.onet.pl/wiadomosci/energetyka/bp-zwolnienia-w-ciagu-dwoch-lat/41sx1y
- http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/01/15/092655FD00000514-0-image-a-1_1421362330265.jpg
Thursday, 17 December 2015
Polish Power Exchange introduced future contracts for electricity (+ description of a standard contract)
At the beginning of
November (2015), Polish Power Exchange ( in Polish: Towarowa Gielda Energii, TGE) introduced trading of futures contracts
for electricity. The introduction of future contracts to the Polish Power
Exchange was based on the decision of Ministry of Finance from February 23, 2015
which authorized trading derivatives on commodities on the Market in Financial
Instruments ( Polish: MiFID), which will be run by the Power Exchange.
Monday, 14 December 2015
First LNG delivery to Swinoujscie terminal
 |
| Al Nuaman: ship delivering LNG to Swinoujscie terminal |
Construction
of LNG terminal in Swinoujscie is one of the largest investments in Polish
energy sector in the country’s recent history. LNG terminal has been built with
the purpose to diversify natural gas supplies in Poland and giving the state an
opportunity to receive price-competitive gas from the Middle East. Now, after
10 years of research, planning and construction, Poland has received the first
delivery of liquefied gas from Qatar.
The
project of construction of LNG terminal in Swinoujscie lasted for nearly 10
years and cost more than 2.5 billion złoty ( approx. 700 million euro). The
first delivery of LNG took place in the morning of 11 December,2015. The tanker
called ‘Al-Nuaman’ has delivered 120
billion scm of gas, at the moment dedicated to the number of tests/preliminary operations
that the terminal has to go through (cooling and system start-up of
installation). The second delivery of liquefied gas to
Swinoujscie, for further operational tests, will be carried out in the first
quarter of 2016.
 |
| Route that Al Nuaman took from Qatar to Poland |
The
ship, Al Nuaman, got its own fame in Poland and earned many media coverages,
due to its “historical mission”. Al Nuaman is 315 meters long and 50 meters
wide. It was built in 2009 in the shipyard Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine
Engineering in South Korea. Q-Flex, the technology used on the ship, works as
if the ship was a giant thermos, in which gas is transported at a temperature
of minus 160 degrees Celsius (this is the boiling point of methane, the main
component of the LNG). The ship's crew is 25-35 people, consisting mainly of
highly trained officers.
Swinoujscie LNG Terminal – investment of
a strategic importance
The
terminal is a very important object for Polish energy security – thanks to its
construction, it will be possible to diversify gas supply and receive the raw
material from many, at the moment unreachable, countries who are offering competitive
price (Middle Eastern countries, USA or Canada). The initial regasification
capacity of the terminal is equal to 5 billion scm per annum and will
correspond to one-third of Polish demand for natural gas. It is taken into
consideration that in the following years the facility will expand its capacity
to 7.5 billion cubic meters a year.
The
terminal will not only diversify and secure national gas supply but it might
give Poland an opportunity for further gas trading. Poland could resell
delivered gas to the neighbouring states. It is estimated that the terminal
will be capable of receiving approx. 40 deliveries a year (covering up to 50 %
of Polish gas demand), therefore, with the developed pipeline network,
re-selling could be more than possible.
In
Poland, at the moment, the dominant entity responsible for the purchase and
sale of natural gas was PGNiG (Polish Oil and Gas Group). The company covers
about 30 percent of domestic gas demand. The rest of the demand is covered by
the import, mainly from Russia (Gazprom). After the collapse of the Soviet Union,
satellite states (including Poland, as a country that was strongly influenced
by USSR trade, even if not part of the union) were not able to bring to the
diversification of gas supplies from the direction other than the East. As a result, central/eastern part of Europe is
still characterized by a hermetic historical system of gas transmission
pipelines.
The
situation has started to change with the construction of the LNG terminal in
Swinoujscie and the floating LNG storage and
regasification unit for the terminal in Klaipeda (Lithuania). The supplier
of gas to Swinoujscie’s terminal is Qatar Gas. Klaipeda will be supplied with
gas from Statoil, at least for the following 5 years – the length of the
current supply contract.
Based on:
http://biznes.onet.pl/wiadomosci/energetyka/gazoport-energetyczne-okno-na-swiat/l8mj1s
Pictures:
Onet.pl
Wednesday, 2 December 2015
COP21: Prime Minister Beata Szydlo at the inauguration of the climate summit in Paris
 |
| Prime Minister Beat Szydlo in Paris |
Polish Prime Minister, Beata
Szydlo, took part in Monday's inauguration of the COP21, gave the negotiators a
mandate to develop a concrete solutions in the text climate agreement.
She
opened her speech with the reference to the attacks that took place in Paris in
November, expanding its meaning to universal value of security; she said:
“It is important that we work in
solidarity on key issues and make sure that all people feel safe and able to
calmly think about the future “,
Adding that this also applies to climate
protection.
The head of Polish government stressed
out that Poland will sign an agreement regarding the limits of the emission of
CO2, but under the condition that the interests of Polish economy will be
protected. Considering Poland’s heavy economic dependence on the coal
exploration industry*, commitment to too restrictive emission guidelines could
be not only faced with general social discontent, but also with serious
financial consequences for many branches of Polish economy.
For the same reason, Poland has
been opposing the emission reduction roadmap in the past. Read about Poland’s
statement on the stabilization of European CO2 emission allowances market: click
It is important to remind that
Poland already managed the emission reduction tremendously. In comparison to
the start level (1988), Poland reduced its emission of CO2 by 30 % with the
double increase of GDP (often correlated to GHG emission level).
Concluding her presentation, Prime
Minister Szydlo pointed out crucial criteria that should be kept in mind during
the negotiations – that “(…) all
countries of the world must be involved in climate policy and they have to take
responsibility for the changes that will be implemented, in the same time
taking into account the interests of individual economies”.
COP21 (United Nations Conference on
Climate Change) is the 21st Conference of all countries which want to take
action for the climate. This year’s edition will be held in Le Bourget, France,
from 30 November to 11 December.
See the website for more details: http://www.cop21.gouv.fr/en/
*coal exploration industry in
itself does not produce high level of emission of CO2; due to the fact that
Poland explores coal, it is the cheapest source of energy which is therefore burned ( on commercial
scale in power plants, heat producing plants and heavy industry production
plants) and emits carbon dioxide
Based on:
- https://www.premier.gov.pl/wydarzenia/aktualnosci/premier-beata-szydlo-na-szczycie-klimatycznym-w-paryzu.html
- http://www.polskieradio.pl/5/3/Artykul/1551675,Szczyt-klimatyczny-w-Paryzu-Beata-Szydlo-globalny-wysilek-to-dla-Polski-warunek-przystapienia-do-umowy-klimatycznej
- http://www.gazetaprawna.pl/artykuly/908427,szczyt-klimatyczny-w-paryzu-beata-szydlo-wzywa-do-solidarnosci.html
Picture:
Source: PAP/EPA
Thursday, 19 November 2015
Ministry of Energy - will the new ministry solve the current energy problems?
The Poles elected new government this fall, as a result of a parliamentary
elections. The new government has new ideas on how to govern the country - one
of them is the creation of a ministry dedicated to the energy matters (what at the moment is part of the competences of the Ministry of Economy). What's the opinion of Polish media on this idea?
Tuesday, 20 October 2015
Eco Energy Summit 2015
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