Norway-Polish Pipe Moves to Booking Stage

Polish state PGNiG has booked firm capacity for 15 years in the proposed Norwegian-Poland gas corridor, which will bring natural gas from Norwegian continental shelf and the North Sea to Poland.

Under this procedure, the dominant importer made a binding commitment for capacity booking in the so-called 'BalticPipe' planned pipeline for the period between October 1st, 2022 and September 30th, 2037. The underlying liability to be incurred over the 15-year period amounts to zloty 8.1bn ($2.3bn). At time of going to press, PGNiG had not told NGW how many bn m³/yr its payment would entitle it to. 

PGNiG said it was "determined to make full use of the capacity booked in the future Norwegian Corridor as a way to diversify its imports portfolio. Thanks to the positive result, gas transmission service contracts can be signed with Gaz System and Energinet - Danish and Polish transmission system operators." It said the signing would happen very soon.

The economic test was focused on project viability and performed as part of the open season procedure, in line with the requirements of the network code on capacity allocation mechanisms in gas transmission systems. Test completion and announcement of results were overseen by Polish energy regulatory office (ERO) and Danish energy regulatory authority (Dera). 

Polish project co-sponsor Gaz System said November 30 that it and Denmark's Energinet confirmed the business rationale for building the new Norway-Denmark-Poland transmission infrastructure, adding: "Both operators will continue their project activities in order to be able to deliver first gas in October 2022 if a positive investment decision is taken in 2018. The final investment decision to be taken in 2018 depends, among other things, on the fulfilment of the conditions precedent set out in the capacity agreements."