The demand for the natural gas is related to the economic growth in the country. According to preliminary estimates of the Central Statistical Office, the gross domestic product (GDP) dropped in 2020 by approx.. 2.8% yoy (against the growth by 4.5% yoy in 2019).
According to the data by Gaz-System S.A., the amount of transported gaseous fuel in Poland in 2020 dropped to the level of 205.1 TWh against 212.6 TWh in 2019, which is down by 3.5% yoy (in 2019 the growth amounted to 9.7% yoy).
The main reason of the drop in the domestic gas consumption in 2020 was the pandemic of coronavirus COVID-19 and related to it multiple restrictions introduced by the government aimed at slowing down the pace of the coronavirus surge. The restrictions of movement and direct contacts of persons translated into a decrease in the exchange of goods within the country and with other countries. As a consequence, all these factors led to a lower activeness of the entire economy, including also the industrial sector and lower gas consumption.
The volume of natural gas trading on the POLPX in 2020 amounted to 151.1 TWh, which is up by 3.4% against 2019, and is the best result in the history of this product trading on the POLPX. Record results were achieved in 2020 for the spot market trading – 25.8 TWh (up by 14.0% yoy), and the derivatives market – 125.3 TWh (up by 1.5% yoy). The volume on the Day-Ahead Market of gas amounted to 19.9 TWh (up by 17.6% yoy), and on the Intra-Day Market of gas 5.9 TWh (up by 3.3% yoy).
In 2020 the prices of gas demonstrated a significant downward trend.
The weighted average price of the RDNiBg market in 2020 amounted to 57.14 PLN/MWh, which is down by 15.58 PLN/MWh against 2019 (down by 21.4% yoy). On the derivatives market in turn the weighted-average of the contract with delivery in 2021 (GAS_BASE_Y-21) reached in 2020 the level of 69.15 PLN/MWh, that is by 20.76 PLN/MWh down against the corresponding price from the quotations of the contract GAS_BASE_Y-20 in 2019 (down by 23.1% yoy). (source: TGE).
In accordance with the valid principle of third parties access (TPA) to the network, all final customers are free to choose the electricity and natural gas seller. Final customers using the network of a local provider can individually select the seller of electricity org as which will offer them the most favourable conditions of sale. The president of the Energy Regulatory Office conducts cyclical evaluation of the actual execution of the right to choose the seller.
A large drop in the number of customers who changed the gas seller occurred in 2020. The data provided by distribution system operators demonstrates that in 24.7 thousand of customers changed the seller in 2020 against 53.9 thousand of customers in 2019 (down by 54.2% yoy), and for the number of metering systems the changes were made for 30.9 thousand of them in 2020 against 61.7 thousand of systems in 2019 (down by 49.2% yoy).
At the end of 2020, the total number of seller changes amounted to 268.9 thousand, and in the metering systems in total 317.3 thousand, since the date the change of seller was made available (incremental data) (source: URE).
At the end of Q3, a concession for trading gaseous fuels was held by 187 entities, and 92 enterprises participated actively in natural gas trading (source: URE).
Trade organisations and institutions:
