The construction of the GIPL gas pipeline, 508 km long connecting the gas transmission systems of Poland and Lithuania has been almost completed. Therefore, the transmission system operators GAZ-SYSTEM SA and AB Amber Grid decided that the partial capacity of this gas pipeline will be available to market participants from May 1. GIPL will reach its full capacity in October 2022.

Since May 1, the interrupted capacity for the direction from Lithuania to Poland will amount to 2.4 GWh / h, which corresponds to 1.9 billion m3 per year. The capacity for the direction from Poland to Lithuania will be 2.6 GWh / h, which corresponds to 2 billion m3 per year.

Initial transmission capacity in both directions will be offered in April 2022 on the GSA Platform, which is an IT tool for reserving gas transmission capacity through the Santaka interconnection (connection point between Poland and Lithuania).

The GIPL project aims to create a two-way gas transmission pipeline connecting the natural gas transmission systems of Poland and Lithuania, which will eliminate the so-called energy islands, i.e. regions not yet integrated with the EU energy market, such as Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland.

The construction of the gas pipeline is an investment that has the status of a “Project of Common Interest” and is co-financed by the European Union under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and the Trans European Networks – Energy – TEN-E).

GAZ-SYSTEM is a strategic company for the Polish economy. It is responsible for the transmission of natural gas and manages the most important gas pipelines in Poland and is the owner of the President Lech Kaczyński LNG Terminal in Świnoujście.

The company is also implementing one of the most important infrastructure projects in Poland – the Baltic Pipe project, a two-way sea gas pipeline connecting Poland and Denmark; the local transmission network and three gas compressor stations.

Adrian Andrzejewski