Sorry if it has been linked before, Linked below is an older Polish article that basically says that any award payable due to the arbitration will be a minor compared to the benefit of the securing the coal assets for Poland.
Supply disruptions resulting from the pandemic and the crisis on the energy market caused by the Russian Federation's attack on Ukraine have clearly shown how crucial it is for the state's security to have access to its own deposits.
The fact that today we can talk about Poland's raw material security and our energy independence is the result of the mature policy of the United Right government. There was supposed to be no coal, gasoline was supposed to cost PLN 10 per liter, and Poles were supposed to freeze to death. The total opposition narrative failed again.
Today, Donald Tusk is trying to put on the mask of a defender of Polish coal. But it was not him, not PO politicians, but Law and Justice politicians who saved Polish deposits and Polish mining companies that their predecessors wanted to write off as losses.
By not succumbing to blackmail from Brussels, it was possible to secure strategic hard coal deposits and ensure that they served Poles and that mining was carried out by State Treasury companies. The most important thing in this respect was securing the Lublin Coal Basin. After years of uncertainty caused by the privatization policy promoted by PO, the national mining champion, Lubelski Węgiel Bogdanka, returns to the State Treasury.
Lubelski Węgiel Bogdanka is a strategic company that provides a significant volume of steam coal in the Polish system, as Deputy Prime Minister Jacek Sasin said during a conference on the purchase of LW Bogdanka shares by the State Treasury.
We are currently in the final stretch - said the Deputy Prime Minister in an interview for TVP Info. – There is a government decision on this matter, we are conducting appropriate analyzes and valuations. We should finalize this process in July. The State Treasury will be enriched by a new company, (...) currently mining coal, but in the future we plan it will be a company that will reach for other raw materials and other deposits - added Sasin.
In his opinion, coal from Bogdanka near Lublin (...) can be obtained cheaper than in Silesia, "because the conditions for coal mining there are much easier. (...) This is a very promising deposit, a very future-proof mine, hence the decision.”
In the past, dark clouds were gathering over Bogdanka because foreign investors wanted to take over this basin, which is crucial for Poland's raw material security. Only thanks to the government's determination, often against court judgments and pressure from embassies, the K-6-7 deposit was returned to Bogdanka, which will enable it to continue mining until 2050. Earlier, the company was also granted the Ostrów deposit. If it were not for the government's decisions, mining near Bogdanka would be carried out by Australians who wanted to sell coal not to Polish power units, but to coking plants in the Czech Republic and Germany. Such activity would undoubtedly not be beneficial for Poland.
A similar situation occurred in Silesia, where the same investors from the Antipodes, but also from Germany, wanted to take over key coking coal deposits in order to create competition for Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa.
What was at stake was shown by the latest results of JSW, which earned a record amount of PLN 7 billion in 2022. The efficient policy of Deputy Prime Minister Jacek Sasin and Minister of Climate and Environment Anna Moskwa means that the situation is now under control. An example is the Dębieńsko deposit. The previous management boards of JSW, who wanted to buy it from the Australians, commented on its value. These are the last large deposits of the most valuable type 35 coal in Poland. Estimates of the Prairie Mining company indicated that there are approximately 93 million tonnes of coking coal in Dębieńsk that can be extracted. Prices reach over PLN 1,000 per tonne, which means that resources worth PLN 93 billion were at stake.
Of course, this bold policy has its price. Foreign investors have submitted claims which they are pursuing before the arbitration court in The Hague. The case is in its final stages and a verdict will be announced soon. The value of these claims is over PLN 4 billion, but even if Poland loses the case and has to pay a one-time compensation, which legal experts believe is likely, the profits far outweigh the potential losses.
Therefore, it can be said that for the amount of several billion PLN, strategic deposits were recovered, the value of which is many times greater. More importantly, we managed to secure raw material and energy security for many years, as well as ensure stability and a good future for important State Treasury companies.
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