Page 9 - EurOil Week 35 2022

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Poland, Slovakia launch gas link

EAST EUROPE POLAND and Slovakia have opened a new gas LNG and Norwegian gas would give the country
link connecting them that their leaders say will its “energy freedom.”
Poland lost access to enhance energy security in central Europe amid “Now, the immense challenge for the pipe-
Russian gas earlier this steep reductions in Russian gas supply over line operators for the coming few months will be
year, while Slovakia recent months. to fill it with safe and affordable gas,” Polish Cli-
relies heavily on The 165-km pipeline will form part of mate Minister Anna Moskwa told the briefing.
Gazprom’s supply. a North-South gas infrastructure corridor This will be no easy feat, as gas spot prices
between the Baltic, Adriatic and Aegean seas, soared to over $3,000 per cubic metre last week
the east Mediterranean and the Black Sea, that in the wake of Gazprom’s announcement of a
the EU has been seeking to develop over the last three-day closure of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline
decade to interconnect its energy system. It will at the end of the month for maintenance. There
enable the transport of LNG imported in Poland, are fears that the Russian supplier might leave
and Norwegian gas once the Baltic Pipe is com- the pipeline offline for good. Auctions for trans-
pleted later this year, to Slovakia, which is heavily port capacity via the pipeline will start soon after
dependent on Russian supply. commissioning is finished.
Poland, which lost access to Russian gas ear- Poland is relatively well-stocked with gas
lier this year after refusing to comply with the ahead of the coming winter, with its storage facil-
Kremlin’s demand that customers in Europe pay ities currently filled to 100% capacity – the only
for supplies in rubles, will also be able to poten- EU member state to have achieved such a feat.
tially receive gas supply from southern routes via This means that the country has enough gas to
Croatia and Italy, Morawiecki said. cover a quarter of its annual consumption needs.
“This investment delivers supply secu- Slovakia, on the other hand, has only filled
rity to our western neighbours, to the whole its storage facilities to 78.4% capacity, but this
of Europe,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz capacity is so large relative to its consumption,
Morawiecki told a news brief, while his Slovak that it means it could cover over half of its annual
counterpart Eduard Heger said that receiving consumption. ™

Norwegian gas supply to be hit by heavy

maintenance in September

NORWAY NORWAY has replaced Russia as Europe’s big- year-on-year growth, and all of this supply will
gest gas supplier since Moscow began its inva- be exported to the UK, Germany and France.
Norway is set to sion of Ukraine, but how much gas it can export Companies have been selling gas that previously
produce 122 bcm of to the continent will be curtailed significantly they would have reinjected into reservoirs to
gas this year. next month as a result of significant mainte- boost oil output. As Norway committed to keep-
nance that companies had deferred from earlier ing European gas supply as high as possible this
this year. summer, gas pipeline operator Gassco had to
The downtime is ill-timed, as the European delay some planned maintenance.
energy market braces for the complete closure “Some planned maintenance outages have
of Russia’s Nord Stream 1 pipeline at the end of been adjusted this year to maintain high gas
this month for maintenance, and amid ongo- supplies to Europe during the summer months,”
ing concerns that Moscow might not reopen Gassco told Reuters.
the pipeline afterwards. The summer heatwave The maintenance work will cut capacity at 13
has also led to lower hydropower levels, while fields and processing plants during September,
French nuclear outages continue, limiting how resulting in a peak loss of gas supply of 154.7mn
much gas demand can be replaced by alterna- cubic metres per day on September 7. For com-
tive sources. parison, Norwegian production totalled 351
Norway is set to produce 122bn cubic metres mcm per day during July. Maintenance will also
of gas this year, according to the Norwegian take place at exit terminals in Europe and the
Petroleum Directorate (NPD), marking an 8% UK. ™

Week 35 02•September•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9