With the launch of the Baltic Pipe, a planned new energy project, Poland will be able to import 17 billion cubic metres of gas a year from sources other than Russia by 2022 at the latest, an official has said.

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

The plan to build a pipeline linking Poland with Norway via Denmark is part of Warsaw’s efforts to diversify gas supplies and reduce the country’s dependence on Russia.

Piotr Naimski, the Polish government pointman’s on strategic energy infrastructure, said his country would continue domestic production of gas at a level of 4-5 billion cubic metres a year.

This means that Poland will have a gas surplus of around 5-6 billion cubic metres annually, Naimski said at a conference on energy security in Rzeszów, south-eastern Poland, on Monday.

Polish Energy Minister Krzysztof Tchórzewski said in February that the construction of the planned Baltic Pipe gas pipeline was to be completed by 2023.

He added that Poland’s gas surplus by the end of that year would be transmitted to neighbouring countries such as Slovakia, the Czech Republic and possibly Ukraine.

Poland's long-term gas supply contract with Russia is set to expire by 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 and importing gas via the planned Baltic Pipe.

(pk/gs)

Source: PAP