Baltic Pipe project kicks off

Construction of a major gas pipeline from Norway is to begin in the coming days and will be a “milestone” in giving Poland independence from Russian gas, Polish President Andrzej Duda said Monday, Report informs, citing the New York Times.

Duda said the Polish-Danish-Norwegian project will also supply gas to other countries in central and eastern Europe, and especially to Ukraine, easing its dependence on Russian gas.

Italian engineering company Saipem is to lay the part of the pipeline that will lie on the floor of the North and Baltic seas. Saipem said the contract is worth some 280 million euros ($307 million).

Poland has been gradually reducing its heavy dependence on Russian gas, inherited from the communist era. One of the elements is a new liquefied gas terminal in Swinoujscie that receives imports from the U.S. and Qatar, among others.

The capacity of the EUR 1.6 billion Baltic Pipe will be 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) a year, Reuters reported.

“We have already contracted all major contractors and suppliers necessary to start the construction of the gas pipeline connecting the coasts of Denmark and Poland,” the head of Gaz-System Tomasz Stepien, said in a separate statement.