Poland Launches New Internal Gas Pipe
Poland has brought on stream a new gas pipeline in its southeast that forms part of the EU-backed North-South Gas Corridor, the Polish government reported in a message on April 27.
The 70-km Hermanowice-Strachocina gas link cost zlotys 350mn ($84mn) to build, of which zlotys 146mn came from the EU's Infrastructure and Environmental Operational Programme.
According to Polish gas transmission system operator Gaz-System, the connection's launch will expand domestic transmission capacity, while enabling increased cross-border trade at a later stage.
The North-South Gas Corridor, listed as an EU project of common interest, aims to establish a route from Poland's Swinoujscie LNG import terminal on the Baltic Sea all the way to another regasification plant being built in Croatia, via the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.
Poland hopes the project will establish the Swinoujscie facility as a key regional supplier. The terminal is currently undergoing an expansion that will raise its regasification capacity by 50% to 7.5bn m3/yr.
The Hermanowice-Strachocina connection will also form part of a new pipeline connecting Poland and Ukraine. Its construction began in early 2017.
Gaz-System also reported on April 24 that the government of the West Pomeranian province in northwest Poland had issued a building permit for the offshore section of Baltic Pipe – a 10bn m3/yr pipeline did to start flowing gas from Norway to Poland via Denmark in late 2022.