All Permits in Place for Poland's Baltic Pipe
Sweden's government on May 7 approved the construction of the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline through the Swedish exclusive economic zone in the Baltic Sea, meaning the project has now secured all necessary permits, Polish grid operator Gaz-System said on May 11.
"We are very happy to have obtained construction permit from the government of Sweden and we do appreciate the swift and smooth processing of our application," Gaz-System's president Tomasz Stepien said. "This decision has shown that the Swedish government recognises the project’s importance, not only for Poland and Denmark but also for the whole EU, for tightening co-operation among the EU member states and, perhaps most of all, for becoming independent of natural gas supplies from Russia."
Baltic Pipe is due on stream in October 2022 and will flow up to 10bn m3/yr of Norwegian gas to Poland, which is looking to end contractual gas supplies from Russia once its existing supply deal expires at the end of that year.
Gaz-System has already secured permits from Poland and Denmark, and has hired Italy's Saipem to lay 275 km of pipe between Denmark and Poland. The first work will begin in the second half of this year, with pipelaying activities starting in the summer of 2021.