According to the estimations of experts, Poland is striving to strengthen its role within the framework of the European energy project «Northern Gas Corridor» (which foresees strengthening cooperation in the energy industry between the states of the Carpathian and Baltic regions). This is evidenced by the results of the conferences of the «Baltic Gas Pipeline» project carried out by «Energinet.dk», the operator of the gas transmission system of Denmark, and «Gaz-System», the operator of the gas transmission system of Poland in conjunction with the Polish energy company «PGNiG» within the framework of the «Northern Gas Corridor» held in Copenhagen, Denmark on September 10th, 2018.
In particular, the expert of the Polish Institute of International Relations Aleksandra Gawlikowska noted that the term of the gas agreement between the Polish «PGNiG» and Russian «Gazprom» expires in 2022, and the Polish government intends to completely replace the Russian gas supplier with the Norwegian supplier, which offers a more competitive, acceptable to Poland gas price.
The expert believes that the European Commission fully supports the initiative of Poland to build the «Baltic gas pipeline» between Norway and Poland on the territory of Denmark with the capacity of 10 billion cubic meters per year.
According to the plans of the government of Poland, the final investment decision on the construction of the «Baltic Gas Pipeline» is expected by the end of December 2018.
Polish «PGNiG» has already purchased the «Baltic Gas Pipeline» transport capacity of 8 billion cubic meters per year at the auction for a period of 15 years (from 01.10.2022 to 30.09.2037) and guaranteed payment of 8.1 billion PLN to the consortium of gas pipeline operators.
Pawl Poprawa, an expert at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow noted regarding the prospects of gas production in Norway that Polish «PGNiG» will produce about 2.5 billion cubic meters of its own gas per year in Norway starting from 2022, the other capacity of gas which amounts to 7.5 billion cubic meters will be bought from other Norwegian gas producers.
According to the Norwegian side, verified gas fields in Norway have been used only by 50%, while the volumes of gas production in Norway continue growing.
Government representative on development of strategic energy infrastructure in Poland, Piotr Naimski, informed that the discussions on the course of implementation of the investment project «Baltic Gas Pipeline» took place in the Polish Parliament under his initiative.
He noted that, according to the EU legislation, the gas pipeline will have the possibility of reversing and, if necessary, transporting gas from Poland to Denmark, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ukraine. The project period of operation of the gas pipeline is 50 years (from 2022 to 2072), and the length of the marine section of the gas pipeline will be 275 km.
Poland thus seeks to strengthen its role within the European «Northern Gas Corridor», where Poland’s construction of the «Baltic Gas Pipeline», along with the modernization of the LNG terminal in Swinoujscie, shall become the key elements of a new gas corridor that will supply Norwegian hydrocarbons to the EU gas market. Potentially, since 2022, the combined capacity of the «Baltic Gas Pipeline» and the Polish LNG terminal may be around 20 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
