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EurOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT EurOil
Baltic Pipe makes permitting progress
POLAND
POLAND’S Baltic Pipe cleared another hurdle this week, securing its second construction per- mit from the authorities in the country’s West Pomerania region, according to Polish transmis- sion system operator (TSO) Gaz-System.
e project, involving the construction of a pipeline to carry up to 10bn cubic metres per year of Norwegian gas to Poland via Denmark, received its first permit from the Wielkopol- ska province southeast of West Pomerania last month. In a statement, Gaz-System said the West Pomeranian leg of the pipe would run from the Ploty transmission station, scheduled for upgrades, to the Goleniow compressor station.
Warsaw wants to use Baltic Pipe to break its dependence on gas imports from Russia, currently Poland’s top supplier. e project has been discussed for years but only began gaining traction in 2017, a er the Danish and Norwe- gian governments threw their support behind its construction.
Gazprom-System and its Danish counterpart Energinet took a nal investment decision (FID) on the $2.4bn venture in late 2018. Baltic Pipe also has backing from the EU, which in Janu- ary pledged 215mn euros ($244mn) in funding assistance.
Poland aims to break ground on the pipe in mid-2020 and bring it on stream by 2022, when state-run gas company PGNiG’s long-term gas supply contract with Russia’s Gazprom is due to expire. e government says it will not seek a new agreement with Moscow, relying in the future on Baltic Pipe supplies and rising LNG imports to satisfy demand. Any Russian gas pur- chased a er 2022 will be bought on a spot basis, o cials have said.
There has also been progress at another pipeline project linking Poland with Lithuania. In a notice on June 26, Lithuanian TSO Amber Grid said its board had approved the purchase of 26.4mn euros ($30mn) of pipe from Polish supplier Izostal to build the 165km Lithuanian segment of the interconnector. A contract will be signed a er the move is cleared by shareholders at a general meeting on July 23.
The Poland-Lithuania interconnector will have a total length of 508km and is slated to cost 500mn euros ($569mn) to build. It should start operating towards the end of 2021, helping Poland and Lithuania exchange gas between their respective LNG terminals. Like Baltic Pipe, it too is listed as an EU project of common inter- est (PCI).™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 25 27•June•2019