Poland's Naftoport will build a new jetty to accommodate supertankers at its Gdansk oil terminal, its majority owner said, aiming to ease pressure on infrastructure and enable German customers to fully switch to seaborne oil supplies.
To safeguard volumes and reduce vulnerability to maintenance disruptions, the terminal will begin construction of a new jetty this year. Once completed in the second half of 2028, it will boost annual capacity to 49 million metric tons.
"We're confirming this capability to our clients during discussions about spot deliveries. These options are real and are on the table," Daniel Swietochowski, chief executive of Polish pipeline operator PERN, told Reuters.
State-owned PERN holds a majority stake in Naftoport, which has been operating at near full capacity since 2023, handling record volumes of non-Russian crude as refiners connected to the northern Druzhba pipeline pivoted to maritime deliveries.
Throughput is expected to exceed 39 million metric tons this year and remain steady in 2026.
The added infrastructure will allow Naftoport to fully cover demand from Germany's PCK Schwedt refinery, majority-owned by Russia's Rosneft, and TotalEnergies’ Leuna refinery, alongside Polish refineries operated by Orlen.
PCK, accounting for over 12% of fuel processing capacity in Germany, has been part of Berlin's successful efforts to ensure it can continue operations amid sanctions imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on Rosneft.
Shell and Italy's Eni hold minority stakes in Schwedt, which has relied partly on Kazakh crude transported via PERN through Poland and partly on seaborne flows via Naftoport since the halting of Russian deliveries after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Operational pressure on Naftoport will ease with the new jetty, company CEO Daniel Betke told Reuters, adding: "We sometimes use the six-hour window between one tanker's departure and the next's arrival to carry out repairs, inspections, or maintenance planned down to the minute."
"This jetty will be our insurance policy," he said.
(Reuters)
