Poland starts laying Baltic Pipe offshore
Polish transmission system operator Gaz-System announced on June 27 that a vessel had begun laying the Baltic Pipe in the waters between Denmark and Poland.
Pipelaying was started at the halfway point of the offshore section, in Danish waters near to the island of Bornholm. The Castorone vessel will work its way northwest along the pipeline route.
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Gaz-System president, Tomasz Stepien, said 275 km of pipeline would be laid by year-end. Castorone is the largest of three vessels that will work on the pipe, with additional ships delivering pipes and conducting surveys, dredging, rock placement and preparation of crossings with existing third-party infrastructure.
Baltic Pipe will connect Norwegian offshore fields with the Polish gas market via Denmark, pumping up to 10bn m3/year of gas. The project suffered a setback in June when Denmark's environmental and food appeals board repealed its construction permit over its impact on protected bat and mice species.
Denmark's Energinet, which is working on the project with Gaz-System, has said it expects a three-month delay as a result of the permit issue. The pipeline had been due on stream in October 2022. The timing is key, as Poland's long-term contract for Russian gas supply expires at the end of that year, and Warsaw has ruled out signing a new one.