Planned to be launched in early October 2022, the Baltic Pipe project opens up a new gas supply corridor in the European market by bringing natural gas from Norway to Poland, Denmark, Sweden, the Baltic states, and the Central and Eastern countries in the continent
The offshore section of the Baltic Pipe project is nearly 380km long. (Credit: Baltic Pipe Project)
GAZ-SYSTEM said that the Baltic Pipe project, a 900km long offshore and onshore natural gas pipeline has been connected to the Polish and Danish transmission systems.
According to GAZ-SYSTEM, the last welds connecting the pipeline to the Danish transmission network in Faxe and to the Polish transmission system located in Pogorzelica were made.
The Polish gas transmission system operator (TSO) is partnered with Energinet, a Danish TSO in the gas infrastructure project, which aims to open up a new gas supply corridor in the European market.
The pipeline project will bring natural gas from Norway to Poland, Denmark, Sweden, the Baltic states, and regions in Central and Eastern Europe.
The partners reached final investment decisions (FIDs) on the Baltic Pipe project in late 2018.
GAZ-SYSTEM president Tomasz Stępień said: “Today we can say that the Baltic Pipe offshore gas pipeline is technically a part of the national transmission system.
“With this investment, we have integrated the gas networks of Poland and Denmark, creating a new natural gas supply corridor to the Central and Eastern European region. We still have some start-up and gasification works ahead of us, followed by the launch of transmission on the planned date i.e. on 1 October 2022.”
The Baltic Pipe project comprises five major components. These include the North Sea offshore pipeline from the Norwegian gas system in the North Sea to Denmark, onshore Danish segment, compressor station in Denmark, the Baltic Sea offshore pipeline, and the onshore Poland segment.
The offshore section of the pipeline is nearly 380km long.
GAZ-SYSTEM said that the tie-in of the offshore pipeline and onshore pipelines in Denmark and Poland was preceded by various preparatory activities. These included cleaning the offshore pipeline, water pressure test, dewatering the pipeline, and finally drying of pipeline.
On the Danish territory, the tie-in operation was executed by Energinet by welding a nearly 120m long section that connects the onshore pipeline to the offshore pipeline in an already prepared open trench.
In Poland, the tie-in operation was done by GAZ-SYSTEM. The TSO undertook analogous activities, which involved the welding of a 90m long connector.