"The [Gazprom] contract expires in 2022 and there are no reasons or plans to extend it on current terms," Poland's pointperson for strategic energy infrastructure Piotr Naimski told The Warsaw Voice.
With Poland's annual gas consumption at 14-15 bcm and a recently launched LNG terminal providing 5 bcm capacity, the country needs to find an alternative source of at least 10 bcm of gas, he said.
Radio Poland quoted Piotr Naimski as saying that the involved parties have "an understanding at the highest levels between Poland, Denmark and Norway… there is a green light for the pipeline".
A Baltic Pipe connecting Poland to Norway via Denmark could bear a capacity of 10 bcm, Polish gas infrastructure operator Gaz-System's development executive Pawel Jakubowski said.
If the so-called GIPL 2 bcm link connecting Poland and Lithuania would be completed by 2021 as planned, Poland could sell surplus Norwegian pipeline gas to the Baltics during off-peak periods.
The Baltics and Finland get most of their gas from Russia, except for the Norwegian LNG Lithuania receives via the Klaipeda terminal.
As reported, Latvia and Lithuania are among the European countries paying the most for gas imports. Latvia's purchase price for Russian pipeline gas is only slightly smaller than Lithuania's for imported LNG.
