Poland remains the largest importer in the EU of Russian liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) due to its affordability compared to Western European alternatives, the newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported on Monday.
LPG is a fuel gas containing propane and butane that is used in heating appliances and vehicles.
Russian LPG is not subject to the EU import ban, unlike seaborne oil and petroleum products, and accounts for about 14% of the total Polish fuel market, according to the outlet.
Last year, Warsaw bought €710.3 million ($771 million) worth of Russian LPG, while the rest of the EU “spent much less,” with the total volume of imports worth €417 million ($452 million), the newspaper said.
“Recently, we [Poland] have been importing more and more of this fuel,” the outlet said, citing data from Eurostat and the think tank Forum Energii.
Analysis by the country’s major oil refiner and retailer Orlen also indicates growing LPG imports from Russia, despite Poland’s efforts to diversify supply chains away from the sanctioned country. Orlen attributed the increase in purchases to the lower prices offered by Russia versus other countries, such as Sweden, which became the country’s top LPG supplier last year, as well as Norway and the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, Orlen claimed to have not been buying Russian LPG since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict, offering assurances that it obtains the fuel from its own production and domestic companies, and other foreign sources.
Maciej Zaniewicz, a senior analyst at Forum Energii, says that shifting to Western supplies is logistically complicated for Poland, because most of its LPG terminals are located in the eastern part of the country.
Unimot, one of the country’s largest importers of liquefied gas, echoed these remarks, saying that it is possible to replace Russian LPG but at a much higher cost.
“Due to increased costs and logistical constraints, the price of LPG for end customers is higher, which in the future may mean a decreasing difference between the price of LPG and petrol at petrol stations,” the company’s press office was quoted by the outlet as saying.
According to Unimot, the difference in price between supplies coming from the east versus the west is so great that most of its customers are not interested in western-sourced LPG.
Source: Russia Today