Piotr Naimski, the Polish government pointman’s on “strategic energy infrastructure,” has said he was in Stockholm on Tuesday for talks with officials including Emil Högberg, State Secretary to the Swedish Minister for Policy Coordination and Energy, and Robert Andrén, Director General for Energy at the Swedish Ministry of the Environment and Energy.
In a Facebook entry, Naimski said he also met with Fredrik Ahlén, a director at the Swedish Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation, and Mikael Eriksson, Energy Policy Coordinator at the Swedish Foreign Ministry, while in the Swedish capital on Tuesday.
Some of the possible routes being considered for the undersea section of the Baltic Pipe would see the pipeline run from the Danish island of Zealand to Niechorze in Poland’s northwestern Zachodniopomorskie province via the exclusive economic zone of Sweden in the Baltic Sea, according to Poland’s PAP news agency. The length of the undersea section of the pipeline would be from 227 to 286 km depending on the route option chosen, PAP reported.
The Baltic Pipe is a strategic infrastructure project that would create a new gas supply corridor in Europe. It would enable the transmission of gas from deposits in Norway to Denmark and Poland as well as recipients in neighbouring countries.
The project would consist of five main undertakings: a pipeline leading from the Norwegian system in the North Sea to a collection point in the Danish system; an extension of the existing capacity in the Danish overland transmission system; construction of a gas compressor station on the Danish island of Zealand; a submarine inter-system gas pipeline running from Denmark to Poland complete with a reception terminal; and the development of the Polish transmission system.
The project would be completed in its entirety in the autumn of 2022.
On Monday, Polish state-owned gas giant PGNiG signed an agreement with the national gas transmission system operator Gaz-System to ensure the transmission of gas via the Baltic Pipe from 2022 to 2037. At the same time, PGNiG announced a plan to sign a similar agreement with the Danish operator, Energinet.
Naimski said in December that specialised ships were at work examining the possible route of the Baltic Pipe.
In June, Poland and Denmark signed a memorandum in Copenhagen for the supply of gas to Poland from the North Sea via the Baltic Pipe.
Poland's prime minister at the time, Beata Szydło, said that the Baltic Pipe initiative was key to Poland's energy security amid efforts to diversify gas supplies and reduce the country's dependence on Russia for gas.
(gs/pk)
Source: PAP, wpolityce.pl