Trade abroad
Through PGNiG Sales and Trading GmbH (wholesale) and PST Europe Sales GmbH (retail sale), the PGNiG Group is also developing its natural gas business (both wholesale and sales to end users) in Germany and Austria. In 2016, PGNiG launched its operations in Ukraine, thus entering a new significant market. PGNiG’s increased activity on foreign markets included gas supplies to ERU Trading and NAK Naftogaz of Ukraine.
Exchange and OTC wholesale trading
PST is an active player on organised markets (exchanges) and in OTC trading; it trades with over 50 counterparties under EFET or similar standardised contracts. The company operates in Germany and its neighbouring countries, Austria and the Netherlands. PST registered for trading on the UK gas market (NBP) and launched its operations there in August 2016. PST has also registered its activity in the Czech Republic and Poland. PST is ready to engage in trading on the Czech market if such demand arises from customers or to support liquidity. PST is fully prepared to launch trading operations in Poland if such need arises from the PGNiG Group. PST is also a registered supplier on the Danish and Slovak markets. The presence on both these markets will be exploited if new business opportunities emerge (e.g. to supply gas from Slovakia to Ukraine). PST is a market maker on the PEGAS exchange for the GASPOOL gas hub market area. PST continues to trade in electricity (and emission certificates) on the EEX and in gas on the PEGAS and ICE Index markets. It can also trade on the PPX under a contract with a broker. PST’s commodity trading portfolio was expanded with its entry on the global LNG market, including an analysis of the company’s potential operations in the small-scale LNG sector (LNG as fuel for lorries). To support its trading activity on the global LNG market, a decision was made for PST to open a branch in London, the UK. The branch was registered in 2016 and became operational in February 2017.
PST’s sales structure by product
Structure of PST’s sales outside the PGNiG Group by country
Retail sales
In 2015, PST spun off its retail operations and gas and electricity are sold to end users in Germany and Austria through its newly established subsidiary, PST ES. The target customer group includes small and medium-sized enterprises as well as households with standard consumption profiles. The restructuring and adjustment of the portfolio resulted in a contraction of the end user portfolio (mainly management of receivables − monitoring of customers defaulting on their monthly payments) and in a substantially improved margin per customer.
The overall size of the portfolio (existing and newly acquired customers) stabilised at the year’s beginning and started to grow in Q2 2016 thanks mainly to new customers newly by the company’s marketing partner Premio through its telemarketing platform. In 2016, PST ES signed 60.5 thousand new end user agreements. The majority of customers who signed an agreement in 2016 will receive supplies in 2017 and partially in 2018.
Structure of PST customers by country
Structure of PST customers by product
Structure of PST customers by type of customer
Key services provided to PGNiG Group entities
PST’s key contracts effective in 2016 included a contract for the management of commercial storage capacity for own needs at gas storage facilities in the Netherlands (with a working capacity of 250 GWh) and Austria (with a working capacity of 17 GWh). The objective of the contract is to optimise the growing end-user demand for gas in winter and the trading portfolio. Under its current contracts, PST supplies natural gas to PGNiG on the Polish-German and Polish-Czech borders, thus securing diversification of supply sources. PST has also a contract in place with PGNiG UI for the purchase of gas produced from the Norwegian Skarv field since 2013 and from the Vale and Morvin fields since 2015. In addition, the company provides access to the market to 100 industrial producers of energy from biogas (E2M) and helps optimise PGNiG’s portfolio by trading on Western European markets. PST actively manages gas supply interruptions in real time, on a 24×7 basis, with a view to minimising PGNiG UN costs.
