Poland and Lithuania to Link Gas Grids for 2018
Poland's Gaz-System and Lithuania's Lietuvos Dujos will connect their countries' gas grids by 2018, a member of Gaz System's board has said.
Slawomir Sliwinski said that the two companies would be seeking support from the European Commission for the project, and believed that the European Union would provide its support to the plan.
"We have made an important step to prepare this substantial investment – the Poland-Lithuania gas pipeline – to integrate the gas network in this part of Europe," Mr. Sliwinski said today. "I believe that European Union will support this joint Polish-Lithuanian project. For the Baltic countries the Poland-Lithuania pipeline is a strategic element of the gas infrastructure and provides access to the global gas market, among others, by the LNG terminal in Świnoujście."
The planned connection will cost an estimated €471 million, a statement from Gaz-System said today, with 73 per cent of the investment cost to be taken by Poland. The pipeline would carry up to 2.3 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year to the Baltic States along a distance of 562 kilometres, the statement said. Additional capacity could be created with a further investment, increasing the capacity to up to 4.5 billion cubic metres of gas a year.
Viktoras Valentukevičius, General Manager of Lietuvos Dujos, said the project was of utmost importance to the region.
"The project we are analysing, the Gas Interconnection between Poland and Lithuania, is about bilateral infrastructure, but of regional importance," he said. "As it involves a broad circle of stakeholders and major investments in terms of regional gas markets, it should be very thoroughly and responsibly analyzed what could be the optimal and balanced solution for the full integration of Baltic countries into EU gas market. Together with our Polish partner Gaz-System we will continue the implementation of this project, and I hope other stakeholders in the Baltic countries will take in this part as well," he said.
Preparations for a feasibility study on the project has been undertaken by both companies in recent weeks, with a call for tenders to complete the study to be announced within the next weeks. The companies expect the feasibility study to be completed by the final quarter of 2012. The required work to achieve EU funding will take place after the study is completed.