OSLO: Poland will take final investment decision on the planned construction of a gas connection to the Norwegian shelf next year, a Polish government official said.
The ruling conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) announced its plan to revive the project to build a gas link to Norway at the end of 2015, after it won the parliamentary election in October
Poland, which imports most of the 15 billion cubic metres of gas it consumes from Russia’s Gazprom, plans to have the link ready by 2022 when the long-term agreement on gas supplies with Gazprom terminates. The plan assumes that part of the link will be the Baltic Pipe – a gas connection linking Poland and Denmark.
Piotr Naimski, who supervises Polish gas and power infrastructure said the feasibility study recently completed by Poland and Denmark’s gas grid operators – Gaz-System and Energinet.dk, has indicated the Baltic Pipe would be feasible.
The open season, a procedure in which shippers provide operators with their potential investment signals, is expected to start this year. “The investment decision will be taken in 2018,” he told reporters on Friday.
As part of its plan to reduce the reliance on Russia’s gas Poland started in June its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Swinoujscie at the Baltic Sea.
