The president of Gaz-System, Tomasz Stępień, announced that the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline will pump 1.1 million cubic meters of gas per hour from January 2023. The opening ceremony of the gas pipeline is planned for September.

President Stępień added that the capacity of the gas pipeline in the first phase after its launch depends on the hydraulics of the Danish system. “We have confirmed those 1.1 million cubic meters per hour from January 2023 will flow through the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline”, assured Stępień.

He also informed the public that the part of the Baltic Pipe main on the Polish side is 98-99% ready. The marine section underwent pressure tests last week. The onshore gas pipelines are already welded together. Compressors Gustorzyn, Goleniów, as part of the Baltic Pipe program, are also very advanced, the works are being done according to plan.

Baltic Pipe is a strategic project that is to create a new route of natural gas supplies from Norway to the Danish and Polish markets and to end-users in neighboring countries. The gas pipeline will be able to send 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually to Poland and 3 billion cubic meters from Poland to Denmark. The investors are transmission operators: Danish Energinet and Polish Gaz-System. According to their plans, the pipe will start operating on October 1, 2022.

Stępień assessed that in April 2022, the Polish gas system is ready to close all eastern entries to Poland without the need to launch crisis management, nor to limit supplies to customers.

“We have a historic level of gas storage filling. We receive large amounts of gas every day, and it’s April. The congestion level is already close to 80%” – Stępień pointed out that in the current weather, the Polish economy does not use much gas – about 50 million m3 per day. The capacity of gas storage facilities in Poland is 3.81 billion m3.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński