LPG in 12 package sanctions

EU Council Regulation No. 2023/2878 of December 18, 2023 applies to many product categories, among them also LPG, imported into Poland under the following customs codes:

• CN 2711 12 - liquefied propane,
• CN 2711 13 - liquefied butanes except n-butane and isobutane with purity >95%,
• CN 2711 14 - ethylene, propylene, butylene and butadiene liquefied,
• CN 2711 19 - gaseous hydrocarbons, liquefied, not elsewhere classified.

CN code 2711 19 includes, based on the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union No. C-286/15 of June 26, 2016 on the classification of gas mixtures, also mixtures of propane and butane, which accounted for about two-thirds of the volume of LPG imports from the Russian Federation in the first half of 2023.

A total of customs codes, which account for 90% of LPG imports from Russia to Poland, were subject to restrictive measures under Ordinance No. 2023/2878. The new sanctions included take effect on December 19 of this year, but with a transitional period that allows LPG to be imported from Russia until December 20, 2024 under vested rights, i.e. contracts entered into before the sanctions went into effect.

The agreed transition period corresponds to the position publicly expressed in 2023 by the Polish Ministry of Climate and Environment and consulted with entrepreneurs.

According to data for 10 months of 2023, the share of liquefied petroleum gas supplies from Russia in the total structure of Polish imports has fallen to about 48%. The second largest supplier to the Polish market remains Sweden (21.2%), and the third is Norway (5.2%). This is followed by the Netherlands (4.3%) and the UK (4.2%).

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For more data on the structure of Poland's LPG imports, see the text LPG Market in H1 2023 and POGP's Annual Report.