Page 8 - FSUOGM Week 19 2021

FSUOGM PIPELINES & TRANSPORT FSUOGM

Poland prepares to start

laying Baltic Pipe

POLAND PREPARATIONS are underway for pipelaying some 274 km of gas pipeline on the seabed of the
to begin at the Baltic Pipe project that will flow Baltic Sea.”
The pipeline will help Norwegian gas to Poland, Polish gas transmis- According to Poland’s government, the pipe-
Poland wean itself off sion system operator Gaz-System reported on line’s welding will be completed this year, and in
Russian gas. May 6. 2022 pressure tests, trials and certification work
The EU-backed pipeline will deliver 10bn will take place. The pipeline is on track to flow its
cubic metres per year of gas to Poland at full first gas in October 2022, two months before Pol-
capacity, helping the country to wean itself off ish state gas importer PGNiG’s long-term supply
Russian gas and replace more coal-fired power contract with Russia’s Gazprom expires.
generation with cleaner gas-burning plants. Warsaw has repeatedly said it does not intend
Gaz-System finished the hiring process for all to buy any Russian gas after the expiry of the con-
key contractors for the €2.1bn ($2.55bn) project tract, which currently covers roughly two thirds
in December. of Polish gas demand. PGNiG plans to replace
“On board the three vessels responsible for these volumes partly with gas from its growing
the construction of Baltic Pipe, final prepara- number of fields on the Norwegian Continental
tions are being made before they set sail and Shelf (NCS). It is set to expand its upstream port-
begin laying the gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea,” folio in the country further through the $615mn
Gaz-System said in a statement. acquisition of 33,000 barrels of oil equivalent per
In April, the operator announced that the day (boepd) of production from the UK’s Ineos,
drilling of a tunnel for the pipeline’s landfall site announced in late March.
on the Polish coast had begun, and that similar Poland receives other gas from the 5 bcm per
work in Denmark would commence shortly. year Swinoujscie LNG terminal, and plans to
“Since last year, research vessels have been expand its capacity to 7.5 bcm by 2023. It also
checking the project route once again for unex- wants to build another LNG terminal in Gdansk
ploded ordinance and environmental issues,” that would handle 4 bcm per year of gas starting
Gaz-System said last week. “In the summer, in 2025. Added to this is roughly 4 bcm per year
three specialised offshore units will begin laying of domestic gas production. ™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 19 12•May•2021