Baltic Pipe gas link to be completed by 2022: Polish official

The plan to build the pipeline is part of Warsaw’s efforts to diversify gas supplies and reduce the country’s dependence on Russia.

"Everything is under control, we are following the schedule to the dot, with the completion deadline set for 2022," Piotr Naimski, the Polish government pointman’s on strategic energy infrastructure, said when asked if the project would be completed on time.

He told Catholic radio station Siódma 9 that the Baltic Pipe “is a very large investment project that costs a lot of money," but "it's a matter of [Poland's] security and future for many, many years to come."

Naimski added that the project was “economically justified” and that the 2022 deadline, though "extremely tight," was "absolutely doable."

Naimski last month said that with the launch of the Baltic Pipe, Poland would be able to import 17 billion cubic metres of gas a year from sources other than Russia by 2022 at the latest.

Seventeen billion cubic metres is the amount of gas Poland uses at present every year.

Poland's long-term gas supply contract with Russia is set to expire in 2022, after which time the country wants to maximise exploitation of its north-western Świnoujście Liquefied Natural Gas terminal, as well as using its own resources and importing gas via the planned Baltic Pipe.

Poland's former Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said last year that Poland aimed to stop importing natural gas from Russia after 2022.

(gs/pk)

Source: PAP