In Poland, where coal is king, homeowners queue for days to buy fuel

Lubelski Wegiel Bogdanka SA

27/08/2022 14:01

By Marek Strzelecki and Kuba Stezycki
    WARSAW/BOGDANKA, Aug 27 (Reuters) - In Poland's late summer
heat, dozens of cars and trucks line up at the Lubelski Wegiel
Bogdanka coal mine, as householders fearful of winter shortages
wait for days and nights to stock up on heating fuel in queues
reminiscent of communist times.
    Artur, 57, a pensioner, drove up from Swidnik, some 30 km
(18 miles) from the mine in eastern Poland on Tuesday, hoping to
buy several tonnes of coal for himself and his family. 
    "Toilets were put up today, but there's no running water,"
he said, after three nights of sleeping in his small red
hatchback in a crawling queue of trucks, tractors towing
trailers and private cars.
    "This is beyond imagination, people are sleeping in their
cars. I remember the communist times but it didn't cross my mind
that we could return to something even worse."
    Artur's household is one of the 3.8 million in Poland that
rely on coal for heating and now face shortages and price hikes,
after Poland and the European Union imposed an embargo on
Russian coal following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February.
    Poland banned purchases with an immediate effect in April,
while the bloc mandated fading them out by August.
    While Poland produces over 50 million tonnes from its own
mines every year, imported coal, much of it from Russia, is a
household staple because of competitive prices and the fact that
Russian coal is sold in lumps more suitable for home use.
    Soaring demand has forced Bogdanka and other
state-controlled mines to ration sales or offer the fuel to
individual buyers via online platforms, in limited amounts.
Artur, who did not want to give his full name, said he had
collected paperwork from his extended family in the hope of
picking up all their fuel allocations at once.
    The mine planned to sell fuel for some 250 households on
Friday and would continue sales over the weekend to cut waiting
times, Dorota Choma, a spokeswoman for the Bogdanka mine told
Reuters. 
    The limits are in place to prevent hoarding and
profiteering, or even selling spots in the queue, Choma said.
    Like all Polish coal mines, Bogdanka typically sells most of
the coal it produces to power plants. Last year, it sold less
than 1% of its output to individual clients so lacks the
logistics to sell fuel directly to retail buyers. 
    Lukasz Horbacz, head of the Polish Coal Merchant Chamber of
Commerce, said the decline in Russian imports began in January
when Moscow started using rail tracks for military transport.
    "But the main reason for the shortages is the embargo that
went into immediate effect. It turned the market upside down,"
he told Reuters.
    A spokesman for the Weglokoks, a state-owned coal trader
tasked by the government to boost imports from other countries
declined to comment, while the climate ministry was not
available for comment. Government officials have repeatedly said
Poland would have enough fuel to meet demand.
    In recent years, Poland has been the most vocal critic of EU
climate policy and a staunch defender of coal that generates as
much as 80% of its electricity. But coal output has steadily
declined as the cost of mining at deeper levels increases. 
    Coal consumption has held mostly steady, prompting a gradual
rise in imports. In 2021, Poland imported 12 million tonnes of
coal, of which 8 million tonnes came from Russia and used by
households and small heating plants. 
    In July, Poland ordered two state-controlled companies to
import several million tons of the fuel from other sources 
including Indonesia, Colombia and Africa, and introduced
subsidies for homeowners facing a doubling or tripling of coal
prices from last winter.
    "As much as 60% of those that use coal for heating may be
affected by energy poverty," Horbacz said.
    Back at Bogdanka, Piotr Maciejewski, 61, a local farmer who
joined the queue on Tuesday, said he was prepared for a long
wait.
    "My tractor stays in line, I'm going home to get some
sleep," he said.

 (Reporting by Marek Strzelecki and Kuba Stezycki, Editing by
Ros Russell)
 ((Marek.Strzelecki@thomsonreuters.com;))