Poland, US discuss energy issues in Washington

Government Commissioner for Strategic Energy Infrastructure Piotr Naimski held a meeting in Washington on Wednesday with US Energy Minister Dan Brouillette during which they discussed Polish-US energy cooperation and the US gas supply to Poland.

The meeting was organised at the Washington State Energy Office as part of the US-Poland Strategic Dialogue on Energy and was also attended by Polish Climate Minister Michał Kurtyka.

The politicians discussed Polish-US energy cooperation in terms of particular projects such as joint exercises in the field of digital security planned for this year in Poland and cooperation on new coal mining technologies that will be "less emissive and more effective."

They also discussed the supply of American gas to Poland. Naimski said that contracts for the supply of LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) from the US have been signed and that the US side was interested in the progress of works on the development of the terminal in Swinoujscie, northern Poland, and construction of the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline.

Also, relations with Belarus were discussed during the meeting. "Poland is interested, as far as possible, in assisting Belarus with crude oil supplies if necessary," Naimski said. He also noted that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said, during his recent visit to Belarus, that the US was ready to supply US crude oil to Belarus.

According to Naimski, the supply of crude oil through Poland will be possible if Belarus expresses an interest in the matter. The minister noted that these supplies must start from the moment when Belarusians buy oil, which it wants to deliver to their refineries. "Then we can supply them through our transmission system, initially small amounts of oil, but much larger over time," he said.

Naimski said that Poland is "getting closer to practical solutions" in the construction of a nuclear power plant in the country and noted that there are some American partners who want to cooperate with Warsaw on this investment in the long term.

"We will have six to nine gigawatts in the nuclear sector by 2040 and 2045, this decision has already been made. We will invite and select partners for this programme soon," the Polish commissioner for strategic energy infrastructure said.

Naimski also added that the Polish nuclear programme will concern "large reactors, those with a capacity of 1000 megawatts and more, and there will be minimum of six of them." The reactors will be built in three phases over 20 years, he noted.

"This is a big programme, but when it is completed Poland will have twenty, or little more than twenty percent of stable and safe energy produced in nuclear power plants for the next 60 years," Naimski added.

Kurtyka said that the Polish-US discussions concerned innovations in the energy sector. "This part of the dialogue is important to us (Poland - PAP), because it allows us to think what kind of sources we would like to develop in Poland to respond to the challenges connected with reducing emissions of our energy mix," the minister said.

The four-day visit of the Polish delegation lasts until Friday. In the coming days, Naimski and Kurtyka are scheduled to meet with US State Department representatives and congressmen of the US parties.

The US-Poland Strategic Dialogue on Energy was first announced by President Trump and President Duda at their White House meeting in September 2018. Former Secretary of Energy Rick Perry launched the Dialogue in Warsaw in November 2018 and held the first two Strategic Dialogues on Energy in 2019.