Polish TSO Seeks Australian Expertise

Polish gas transmission operator Gaz-System’s CEO is in Australia to seek engineering expertise for its expansion programme.

Tomasz Stepien and other Gaz-System executives are at the Australasian Oil & Gas Exhibition & Conference in Perth from March 14 to 16 where he is to give a presentation. 

“Our goal is to attract more Australian companies to work with Gaz-System, particularly in the field of LNG technology and construction of gas pipelines, including subsea pipelines,” said Stepien. He said that Gaz-System is drawing on the engineering support of Australia’s Subsea Engineering Associates for the subsea part of the Baltic Pipe  project linking Denmark and Poland.

“We encourage Australian companies to take part in tenders related both to the LNG terminal [expansion] and the construction of the new gas pipelines,” added Stepien, referring to the 2,000 km of new pipes that his company plans to build between 2015 and 2025.

Although not explicitly mentioned in its statement, Gaz System's Stepien is expected to remind his audience in Australia, by 2020 expected to become the world’s largest LNG exporter, that Poland is an importer. Currently Poland largely relies on Qatari imports. State-owned Gaz-System also owns Polskie LNG, owner/operator of the country's Swinoujscie import terminal.

Update March 16: Pawel Jakubowski  (below) was appointed March 13 as president of Polskie LNG's management board.  Since January 2016 he had been head of development at parent Gaz-System, managing its pipeline system expansion project, plus upgrading of its existing pipe connections to Ukraine.