Ukraine (bbabo.net), - The Danish operator Energinet launched the Baltic Gas Pipeline from Norway to Poland at full capacity - 30 billion cubic meters per year. However, there is still little gas for the project.

“Baltic Pipe will reach full capacity from 30 November. The project covers more than 60% of annual domestic demand. Since January this year, we have increased the capacity of the LNG terminal in Swinoujscie. This year we also launched gas pipelines to Lithuania and Slovakia. Today, we can safely say that the task of ensuring the energy security of Poland, set for Gaz-System, has been completed,” said Tomasz Stempień, President of Gaz-System.

The operator of the Polish gas transmission system noted that transportation through the Baltic Gas Pipeline began on October 1, but was limited due to construction work in Denmark.

The gas pipeline is booked for 15 years at 80% capacity - by the Polish state company PGNiG. However, so far the deliveries are at a low capacity. With a design capacity of 27.4 million cubic meters per day on November 30, for example, it is used only by 40%. The gas pipeline will receive about 11 million cubic meters, according to the Norwegian Gassco. At the same time, a volume of about 6 million cubic meters can reach Poland itself. Deliveries via the Baltic Gas Pipeline have been maintained at this level since the very launch on October 1.

As bbabo.net reported, the Baltic Gas Pipeline should become an alternative to Russian gas supplies to Poland. However, the Polish PGNiG reported that their own production in Norway and the Danish contract would allow only 3.5 billion cubic meters to be supplied in the first year. However, the delay in the launch of the Danish field forced to reduce forecasts to 3 billion cubic meters.

In the second half of September, the Norwegian Equinor announced the signing of a long-term contract with the Polish PGNiG.

“The agreement is designed for 10 years with a volume of about 2.4 billion cubic meters per year with transportation through the Baltic Gas Pipeline,” Equinor said in a statement. The Norwegian company clarified that the cost of gas for Poland will reflect the market price, and the volumes are equivalent to 15% of consumption in Poland.

Now the project load can be increased from 30% to 54-64%. However, this will not improve the gas supply to all of Europe, Aleksey Grivach, deputy director of the National Energy Security Fund (NESF), told bbabo.net.

“Norwegian gas production is operating at its limit and even slightly higher, given the delayed repairs and the reduction in technical injection of gas into the reservoir, which made it possible to increase the recovery of oil reserves,” the expert said. “Therefore, in order to supply additional volumes to Poland, these volumes will have to be removed from gas pipelines going to Western Europe and the UK.”

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