Poland and Denmark sign agreement to build gas pipeline in Baltic Sea
Poland and Denmark have agreed to go ahead with the Baltic Pipe, which will span 900 km of the bottom of the Baltic Sea, and is scheduled to start supplying Poland with Norwegian gas in 2022.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki tweeted that the agreement had been signed on November 30.
“Today we were able to make a quantum leap towards the security and independence of the Polish energy sector. An investment decision was made to create the strategic Baltic Pipe gas pipeline, which will enable us to import gas from the Norwegian shelf through Denmark,” Morawiecki said.
Baltic Pipe should start supplying gas to Poland from the moment the contract with the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom comes to an end.
The Polish gas operator GAZ-SYSTEM SA and Danish Energinet SOV announced that they have drafted an agreement which will see the pipeline activated by October 1, 2022.
The pipeline is designed to have a capacity of 10 billion cubic meters per year.
The project will receive €51.4 million in financial support from the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). The total cost of the project has not been disclosed.
Earlier Poland signed an agreement to buy shipments of liquefied natural gas from the US in an attempt to reduce its dependence on Russian gas during a period of tension with Moscow. Poland is also looking into importing fuel from Norway and Qatar.
Poland is actively opposing the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which it views as a threat to Europe’s energy security.
The Nord Stream 2 project involves the construction of a pipeline from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea with a capacity of 55 billion cubic meters per year. Germany, Finland and Sweden have already given complete authorization for the construction and use of the pipeline.