Baltic Pipe is almost ready: Norwegian gas to compensate for Nord Stream 2

Created: 01/05/2022, 12:44 PM

From: Aleksandra Fedorska

Pipeline tubes for the transport of natural gas are stored in the Sassnitz-Mukran seaport.

Both pipes for the construction of the Polish natural gas pipeline Baltic Pipe and for the laying of the German-Russian pipeline Nord Stream 2 will be handled in Mukran.

Baltic-Pipe is supposed to bring natural gas from Norway to Poland via Denmark, while Nord Stream 2 is supposed to bring natural gas from Russia to Germany.

© FRANK HORMANN / Imago

Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic states are among the victims of the Nord Stream 2 project. The answer to this is the construction of the Baltic Pipe.

Warsaw - The Baltic Pipe gas pipeline begins in the west on Europine II, which runs from Norway to Germany.

It continues in the North Sea to the Danish coast, then across Jutland, the island of Fiona and finally Zealand.

Under the Baltic Sea, natural gas from Norway will hit the Polish coast - in Niechorze-Pogorzelica.

The construction of the pipeline with an annual volume of ten billion cubic meters is proceeding according to plan.

The gas pipeline is expected to go into operation on October 1, 2022.

The supply contract with Gazprom, which Poland will not renew after December 31, 2022, will expire around the same time.

In the future, Baltic Pipe should not only ensure security of supply in Poland, but also in the entire region.

Pan-European Baltic Pipe for the region: Norwegian gas to compensate for Nord Stream 2

The Baltic Pipe is first and foremost a European infrastructure project that aims to contribute to the implementation of competition and free trade in the energy sector in the EU.

The EU is now supporting the construction of this gas pipeline as part of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Stand program with an amount of 266.8 million euros.

This sum should increase slightly by the time it is finally completed.

The two operators of the pipeline, Energinet (DK) and Gaz-System (PL), will jointly spend around 1.6-2.2 billion euros on Baltic Pipe until it goes into operation.

The Polish gas production company Polskie Górnictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo SA (PGNiG) secured gas fields in the Norwegian Sea in good time in order to be able to meet the needs of the new pipeline in the future.

At the end of September PGNIG owned a total of 58 concessions in Norway.

The company announced that it will be able to produce up to four billion cubic meters of natural gas annually in Norway * from 2027.

This would mean that Poland would already provide a significant share of the volume of the pipeline.

Baltic Pipe is just the beginning: gas is supplied from the north instead of the east as with Nord Stream 2

In order to be able to distribute gas deliveries in Poland and, if necessary, beyond the borders, even more gas pipelines are needed throughout the country.

So far, the lines have been aligned with the requirements and geographical conditions of the Russian pipeline.

That will of course change with the new Baltic Pipe, where gas is supplied from the north instead of the east.

(The climate policy of the rich countries is green colonialism in its worst form: At the 26th UN climate conference, the governments of the industrialized countries worked to keep the global south poor.)

In May of this year, Gaz-System announced that it would expand its transmission network by 2,000 kilometers of new lines in line with the network expansion plan from 2022 to 2031.

Instead of the existing 11,000 kilometers of the Polish natural gas network, it is to grow to 13,000 kilometers.

Gaz-System will build a gas corridor from northern Poland to the southern borders.

International connections to Lithuania, Slovakia, Ukraine and the Czech Republic will make it even easier to pass through Poland to neighboring countries.

GIPL (Gas Interconnection Poland – Lithuania) is about to be completed.

The commissioning of the project, which is also supported by the EU, is to take place around the same time as the Baltic Pipe.

Gas supply system Poland: connection with Slovakia and the Czech Republic - Ukraine cautious

The connection with Slovakia is also going according to plan. “The connection of the gas supply systems of Poland * and Slovakia will contribute to the regional security of the gas supply and is an important element of the cooperation between these countries within the framework of the Intermarum initiative. The status of construction work on the interconnector is now over 90 percent. The completion of the investment and the commissioning of the gas pipeline are in accordance with the dates already indicated, that is, in the first quarter of 2022, ”said Tomasz Stępień, Chairman of the Gaz-System Supervisory Board.

In the case of the Czech Republic, a fairly modest interconnector is expected to be built by 2027. The relatively low construction costs of a total of 210 million euros concern the route via Cieszyn. It is more a question of expanding an existing connection. The original plan to build a completely new STORK II interconnector was discarded.

While the connecting lines between the EU member states are running rather uncomplicated and according to plan, there are particular obstacles in the case of Ukraine with regard to a common gas connection. It was only after the current delivery problems from Russia to Ukraine over the past few months that a new joint interconnector came up again. On the Polish side, just 1.5 kilometers of a new gas pipeline are needed to complete it, but Ukraine would need another 100 kilometers on their side. Gas trading in the two countries is currently being carried out via an inefficient, older and low-volume connection. The market participants are therefore demanding a new and larger interconnector.

Whether in the EU or the federal government: The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is causing tension.

It's about the climate - and about power.

EU politicians criticize IPPEN.MEDIA.