New Oil and Gas Stocks Act Passed. Doubts Remain

412 MPs voted in favor of the bill, none voted against, and 19 abstained. The Senate will now consider the bill. PiS MPs supported the bill, which could signal that President Karol Nawrocki may sign it into law. Nawrocki vetoed the previous bill on this matter.

Extension of the duties of the Government Agency for Strategic Reserves

Under the new version of the law, the Government Agency for Strategic Reserves (RARS) will be able to provide the so-called ticket service for gas importers for one year longer, until September 30, 2026. The current regulations allowing RARS to provide such a service expire on September 30 of this year. The ticket service involves a gas importer, instead of maintaining the statutory mandatory reserves themselves, subcontracting this service to RARS for an appropriate fee.

The Act also includes provisions for maintaining mandatory oil and fuel reserves. Under current regulations, fuel and oil reserves are to be sufficient for 90 days of average daily production or imports. Some of these reserves are held as RARS agency reserves, while the remaining volume is held by importers or producers in a specified proportion. Importers and producers are currently required to maintain reserves sufficient for 53 days of average production or imports. The Act assumes that RARS will assume an increasing portion of this obligation, with the level of importers' and producers' obligations decreasing: to 50 days from the Act's entry into force, to 47 days from June 30, 2026, and to 45 days from June 30, 2027.

Why did President Karol Nawrocki reject the previous bill?

The previous version of the amendment to the Stocks Act was vetoed by President Karol Nawrocki. The amendment deleted a provision that the European Commission deems inconsistent with Regulation (EU) 2017/1938 of the European Parliament and of the Council – the so-called SoS Regulation on the Security of Gas Supply. This provision stipulates that entities storing gas abroad must reserve appropriate capacity on the interconnector (a gas connection between countries) solely for the purpose of transmitting reserves to Poland in the event of a crisis and cannot use this capacity for any other purpose. In other words, the previous amendment abolished the requirement to reserve transmission capacity in the event of mandatory stocks being maintained abroad. This, in turn, created the risk that, if necessary, gas would not reach Poland when supply security was threatened. President Karol Nawrocki shared these concerns.