Under the contract with Russia’s gas giant Gazprom, which was signed by the two countries in 1996, Poland has been buying up to 9 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, with its total consumption at some 17 billion cubic meters per year.
“Everything indicates that on October 1 next year gas will be transmitted to Poland through the Baltic Pipe pipeline,” Piotr Naimski, the Polish government's pointman on strategic energy infrastructure, said on Monday.
He added that the new pipeline “will allow the necessary amount of gas for the Polish economy to be brought in from sources other than Russia."
Naimski said in February 2019 that his country would stop buying Russian gas after its long-term supply deal with Russia’s state-owned producer Gazprom expires expires at the end of 2022.
Piotr Naimski. Photo: PR24/MS
The Baltic Pipe gas pipeline, which is being built under the Baltic Sea to connect Poland with Norwegian gas fields via Denmark, is part of Warsaw’s efforts to diversify gas supplies and reduce the country’s energy dependence on Russia.
It is set to be launched in October next year to operate at an initial capacity of 2 to 3 billion cubic meters per year.
The Baltic Pipe is ultimately expected to have the capacity to carry 10 billion cubic metres of natural gas from Norway to Poland via Denmark annually.
The Polish president in 2019 described the pipeline as “a strategic project for Poland’s energy transformation, as well as for the energy security of the entire Central and Eastern Europe region.”
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Source: PAP, tysol.pl