Estonia, Finland Ink Gas Link Deal

Estonian state owned transmission system operator Elering and the Finnish state owned company Baltic Connector have signed an agreement to co-operate in carrying out the Balticconnector project to link their two grids by means of a 150-km pipeline.

The pricetag of the project is €250mn, of which €187.5mn comes from public funds. According to the accord, the ownership of the submarine pipeline section of Balticconnector will be split equally.

The parties will prepare a joint procurement strategy to build the offshore section; the on-shore sections of the pipeline will be developed separately by each party, according Elering.

Baltic interconnector

Elering and Baltic Connector are expected to sign a grant agreement with the European Commission on EU co-financing for the Balticconnector gas interconnector project on October 21, 2016.

The planned interconnector is expected to increase the security of supply and energy security in the entire region and will open the Finnish gas market by connecting it to the European gas network. The construction of the gas interconnector will be completed by 2020. 

Linas Jegelivicius