2019-06-15 12:49 update: 2019-06-19, 19:18
Photo: PAP/Leszek Szymański
Gas supply diversification and energy security is needed not only in Poland, but also in the whole area between the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Seas, President Andrzej Duda said on Friday after talks with US Energy Secretary Rick Perry in Sabine Pass, US.
The two officials met at the Cheniere-owned Sabine Pass LNG terminal on the Gulf of Mexico.
During a joint press conference with Perry, Duda noted that Cheniere, a liquefied natural gas company, had signed a contract with Poland's gas giant PGNiG for the supply of liquefied gas to Poland. He said that he hopes that the US gas will flow not only to Poland, but also to the whole region of Central Europe region.
"It is not only a matter of our security, the security of the Republic of Poland, but it is also a question of the security of Central Europe," the Polish president added, pointing out that until recently Russia's Gazprom "reigned supreme" in the region of the so-called Three Seas (the Baltic, the Adriatic and the Black sea) and that "a tragic lesson was learned" after Russia suddenly stopped gas supplies to Ukraine.
He said he was pleased Poland and Central Europe could receive gas from the US, "the global gas market hegemon."
Perry said that Polish-US relations were of major importance, also in matters related to energy security. In this context he stressed that the diversification of energy supply sources and forwarding routes was of key importance for energy security.
The US energy secretary added that Polish-US relations were a strategic partnership that reached considerably beyond LNG supply, and named nuclear power, cyber-security and infrastructure as other promising fields of cooperation.
mr/mb/
