Page 6 - GLNG Week 23 2022

GLNG COMMENTARY GLNG

Poland’s post-Gazprom

strategy hinges on Baltic Pipe

COMMMENTARY WHEN Russia’s state-owned gas company Gaz- in Poland.
prom cut Poland off from its annual 10bn cubic The capacity of the pipeline is about 10bn
metres (bcm) of gas supply in late April, Warsaw a year, roughly the equivalent of Gazprom’s
just shrugged. supplies.
For years, Poland had said that it was going to Perhaps unusually for big infrastructure pro-
end the contract with Gazprom on its expiry at jects, the Baltic Pipe has suffered only minor
the end of 2022 – the same time a new pipeline, cost overruns and its construction is running
called the Baltic Pipe, becomes operational. precisely on schedule.
Gazprom ending supplies early made little
difference – except that Poland is now making Pump up the (gas) volume
noises about suing the Russian company for a Building a new pipeline is not the same as
breach of contract. But supply-wise Warsaw says having it pump gas.
the Baltic Pipe will step in exactly where Gaz- So far, says Gaz-System, Poland’s state-owned
prom left. operator of the gas grid, Baltic Pipe’s capacity has
been booked up to 80% and there is enough time
What is the Baltic Pipe anyway? to push that up to 100% before demand begins
Touted as the “independence pipe”, the Baltic climbing back up in the cold season.
Pipe is about to link the gas-rich fields of the That was the message delivered by Gaz-Sys-
Norwegian Continental Shelf to Poland via tem’s CEO Artur Stepien last week, apparently in
Denmark. response to alarmist media reports that put the
Technically the roughly €1.5bn pipeline will figure at 50% instead.
not tap directly into the Norwegian gas deposits Most of the booked capacity is by PGNiG,
but will be an offshoot of the existing Europipe II Poland’s state-controlled oil and gas company,
gas line connecting Stavanger in Norway to Dor- which operates several concessions on the Nor-
num in Germany on the North Sea bed. wegian Continental Shelf from which the com-
The Baltic Pipe offshoot will run east of Euro- pany extracted 770 mn cubic metres (mcm) of
pipe II on the bottom of the North Sea until mak- natural gas in the first quarter, growing the vol-
ing a landfall near the western Danish town of ume by 250% y/y.
Varde. Then it will run through Denmark until PGNiG says that the real growth in gas pro-
going back underwater – in the Baltic Sea this duction volume is still ahead. The company
time – off Faxe on the island of Zealand before wants to eventually pump up to 4 bcm of gas as
turning south for another landfall in Pogorzelice part of the 8 bcm of the Baltic Pipe’s capacity it

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 23 10•June•2022