Sempra LNG has less cause to be coy about its prospects on the Texas Gulf Coast.

This week’s announcement that Port Arthur LNG, Sempra’s subsidiary, and Polish Oil & Gas Co. have entered into a 20-year, sale-and-purchase pact for liquefied natural gas should give Sempra’s local project more push that it needs to become a sure thing in Jefferson County.

Poland was not coy about its intentions in seeking greater supplies of LNG, both for internal use and for trade on a global market. A Polish delegation met with local leaders last March to sign agreements and Michal Kurtyka, Poland’s undersecretary of state for the Ministry of Energy, was plain about his country’s intentions. Poland wanted more than discussions about LNG; they want it to become some 10-20 percent of its energy portfolio, up from 5 percent now.

Kurtyka said LNG is consumed internally, but Poland, with a seacoast and facilities for receiving LNG, is poised to become an energy hub, fully capable of distributing energy resources to landlocked neighbors like Slovakia, the Czech Republic and even south to embattled Ukraine, once an energy exporter but now hard pressed to hold off aggressive Russia’s military.

In an issued statement, Sempra said the agreement between Port Arthur LNG and the Polish Oil & Gas Co. announced Wednesday marked an important step toward Sempra’s quest to export 45 million tonnes per annum of North American LNG.

Jeffrey W. Martin, Sempra’s chairman and CEO, called the agreement “a major step forward in the development of our Port Arthur LNG project.”

Is Port Arthur LNG a sure thing? Little in energy is certain. LNG projects are costly, complex and for the long haul.

But the Polish company — just like Kurtyka and the government — seems certain of its own intentions. Someone will pick up its business.

“Our activities show that we consistently implement our strategy,” said Piotr Wozniak, president of PGNiG. “Another long-term contract not only allows us to develop LNG portfolio with a view to delivering in Poland, but it gives us, in the near future, the possibility of trading in LNG purchased on a global scale.”

That might yet mean 3,500 construction jobs — these are not short-term projects — and perhaps 200 substantial operator jobs that will be permanent here. It means opportunity for a well-prepared, local workforce if Sempra takes the plunge and builds, probably on abundant land that it owns on Highway 87, not far from the current Golden Pass LNG project.

This is a global project with global implications. Greater Port Arthur Chamber of Commerce chairman Jeff Hayes notes in our pages that such projects help “pave the way for Port Arthur to become a leader in LNG supply to Eastern Europe” and elsewhere.

Are our people ready? Opportunity knocks.