The last weld on the gas pipeline connecting the coasts of Denmark and Poland was made. This moment marks the completion of the most important stage of work on the Baltic Pipe project.
“The construction of the Baltic Pipe offshore section in the Baltic Sea has been completed,” emphasised Piotr Naimski, government plenipotentiary for strategic energy infrastructure. “This day brings us significantly closer to achieving the desired secure diversity of supply sources to Poland in 2022. The capacity of Baltic Pipe will amount to 10 billion cubic metres per year, which is comparable to the volume of gas received by Poland under the long-term contract with Russian Gazprom, which expires in December 2022.”
“The laying of the gas pipeline on the seabed was the most challenging part of Baltic Pipe from an organisational and technical point of view,” added Tomasz Stępień, President of the Management Board of GAZ-SYSTEM. “We completed this stage in accordance with earlier declarations and the planned schedule. We still have to go through tests, technical tests and approvals. We have about a year to complete this work so that from 1 October 2022, we can start commercial gas transmission from the Norwegian shelf to Poland.”
During the construction of about 275-kilometre long gas pipeline across the maritime areas of Denmark, Sweden and Poland, GAZ-SYSTEM used more than 22,000 pipes with a nominal diameter of 900 millimetres. They were all welded together and laid on the bottom of the Baltic Sea by specialised vessels.
The Baltic Pipe project has been recognised by the European Commission as a Project of Common Interest (PCI) and has held this status continuously since 2013. The project has received financial support from the EuropeanUnion under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). The total funding granted so far amounts to 266.8 million euros. This amount is intended, among other things, for the implementation of design works, obtaining necessary administrative permits and the implementation of construction and assembly works.
