Poland will be ready to purchase large volumes of US liquefied natural gas (LNG) starting 2022 or 2023, the country’s state-run natural gas company PGNiG has announced.

At the present time, the country is actively buying LNG from a number of countries, according to PGNiG’s Vice-President of the Management Board for Trade, Maciej Woźniak.

“Since beginning of operations, the Świnoujście LNG terminal [on the Baltic Sea] has received 67 tankers, including eight from the US,” Woźniak told journalists on Friday. “Starting 2022 or 2023, we are preparing to buy millions of tons of LNG from the US,” he added.

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Although the official claims that the cost will be competitive with that of pipelined natural gas from Russia, industry experts say that American LNG will be more expensive when the costs of building specialized LNG terminals –and tankers to then deliver it– are taken into consideration.

US President Donald Trump has been trying to convince European leaders to cut back on purchases of Russian gas. Trump claims the continent is being held hostage by an overreliance on Russian energy and is at the same time trying to increase US LNG exports to Europe.

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The US Energy Department has even renamed American LNG “freedom gas” in a last-ditch effort to convince European and Asian markets its product is superior to cheaper supplies piped in from Russia.

Poland’s PGiNG recently signed long-term contracts for the supply of US LNG. The 24-year deal with Texas-based Cheniere Energy envisions the delivery of over half a million tons of LNG from 2019 to 2022, and 1.45 million tons annually starting 2023.

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