Poland reacted to the revocation of the Baltic Pipe construction permit
Denmark withdrew permission to build a gas pipe from Norway to Poland due to “insufficient knowledge” of the potential damage to the environment. Gas pipeline operator Baltic Pipe suspends work. If the project is seriously out of schedule, then Poland will not be able to bargain with Gazprom for a discount next year, when the long-term contract for the supply of Russian gas to the country expires, experts say.
The Danish Environment and Food Appeals Board has revoked the construction permit for the Baltic Pipe, which is supposed to connect Norway and Poland along the bottom of the Baltic Sea. This was reported by the press service of the Danish transport system operator Energinet.
According to the Danish regulator, the construction will destroy the habitat of small animals such as sleepyheads, tree mice and bats, and the operator has not detailed his plans to protect them.
“We will conduct a thorough assessment of how this will affect the Baltic Pipe project and especially the construction in areas where specially protected animals live. Baltic Pipe is a large infrastructure project that crosses the whole of Denmark. It is impossible not to influence in any way the zones in which we work, but we are making every effort to minimize the impact on nature and human life and to provide good conditions for protected species during and after the construction of the Baltic Pipe”, – said Deputy Director and Head of Energinet Construction Projects Department Marian Kaag.
Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland Pavel Yablonski told the Polish media that the construction of other sections of the gas pipeline will continue.
“We have enough reason to believe that the work on the Danish section, which affected this decision, will be stopped only temporarily until the investor meets the environmental and legal requirements [of the regulator]”, – added Pavel Yablonsky.
“Empty pipe”
The launch of the Baltic Pipe was planned for October 2022, and for the Poles, the pipeline is an important part of the strategy to diversify fuel supplies and reduce gas dependence on Russia. At the end of 2022, Poland’s long-term agreement with Gazprom on the supply of Russian gas expires. Poland has repeatedly announced that it has no plans to extend this agreement, but the country will not be able to refuse from Russian gas, with or without the Baltic pipe, experts say.
“The main problem of the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline is not construction delays, but that it will be a de facto empty pipe. For the fourth year in a row, gas production in Norway has been falling, in order to fill the Baltic Pipe, it is necessary to buy up the gas that is now going to Germany from Norway. Poland has contracted only about 2 billion cubic meters of gas, and its capacity is 10 billion, it will stand empty. But it is extremely important for Poland to build the Baltic Pipe in order to have arguments when discussing the terms of new supplies with Gazprom”, – Igor Yushkov, a leading expert of the National Energy Security Fund, explains to Gazeta.Ru.
According to Yushkov, the Poles said that after 2022 they would not sign a long-term agreement, but they did not say that they would not sign any agreements at all. They will have to draw up medium or short-term contracts, because the country’s demand for gas will grow dramatically in the coming years due to EU demands that the Poles reduce their coal generation. And they will replace it primarily with gas, the analyst said.
The operator of the Polish gas pipeline network Gaz-System said in April that over the next 10 years it expects gas demand to increase by 50%, and in some periods even by 100%.
“For Poland, the average European price is currently being applied, pegged to prices at gas hubs. Even with the presence of Baltic Pipe, it would be difficult to reduce the price, and then even to threaten that “we will now switch to Norwegian gas and will not buy anything from you” will not work if the Baltic Pipe is not put into operation on time in 2022”, – summarizes the leading expert of the National Energy Security Fund.
Margarita Sobol, newspaper.ru