On December 20, the EU ban on the import of liquefied petroleum gases (LPG) from Russia, which provided Poland with more than half of its consumption, comes into force. Nevertheless, some of the supplies will remain, the Polish PAP agency reports.
"In this situation, we can expect that about 10% of liquefied gas imports in Poland next year will be carried out from the eastern direction in accordance with the sanctions policy," Bartosz Kwiatkowski, Director General of the Polish Liquefied Gas Organization (POSG), told the agency RAR, TASS reports.
Some of the supplies will remain, since the sanctions do not apply to all LPG from Russia. Aliphatically saturated hydrocarbons or alkanes do not fall under the restrictions, the expert explained.
Russia has increased the share of alkanes in exports to Poland recently, Bartosz Kwiatkowski added.
A year ago The EU banned the import of LPG from Russia, but granted a postponement for a year, since Russia's share in the Polish market was more than 50%.
"The market situation has not changed. It constantly contains a product from Russia. It is cheap and available in large quantities, so almost half of the imports of liquefied natural gas in Poland comes from Russia," Gaspol President Eva Gavris—Osinska told BiznesAlert back in February.
Alkanes are used as fuel and raw materials for the production of plastics, synthetic fibers, rubbers, detergents, solvents.