Gas Interconnection Poland-Lithuania Construction Nearing Completion
By Maddy McCarty, Digital Editor
The Gas Interconnection Poland-Lithuania (GIPL) should be fully built by the end of this year, and the interconnection will be launched in mid-2022, according to Amber Grid Corp.
Amber Grid is the operator of Lithuania’s natural gas transmission system and a member of ENTSOG – the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas. The corporation is the company behind GIPL, which seeks to connect Polish and Lithuanian as well as Baltic and Finnish natural gas transmission systems with the European Union (EU) system.
The project has been recognized by the European Commission as a Project of Common Interest and it should diversify gas supply sources.
The project includes construction of a 27.5-inch, high-pressure, bidirectional, underground gas transmission pipeline, the first high-pressure gas pipeline connecting Lithuania and Poland.
The GIPL gas pipeline will run from Jauniūnai Gas Compressor Station (GCS) in Širvintos district of Lithuania to the Hołowczyce GCS on the Polish side. The gas pipeline is 508 km (315) mi with 343 km (213 mi) in Poland and 165 km (102 mi) in Lithuania.
The pipeline will have a maximum potential capacity of 85 Bcf (2.4 Bcm) annually from Poland to Lithuania, and a maximum potential capacity of 67 Bcf (1.9 Bcm) annually from Lithuania to Poland.
Planning for GIPL began in 2009 before a feasibility study in 2013 and construction finally began in 2020. This month, Amber Grid completed 98% of GIPL’s construction.
“The progress of the GIPL construction works in Lithuania and in Poland is more than 90%,” an Amber Grid spokeswoman said. “Both countries are moving rapidly towards the end of this strategic energy project.”
After completion of the GIPL at the end of the year, the interconnection will be launched in mid-2022, she said.
“Once the gas interconnection is fully completed, capacity will be created to transport up to 27 terawatt-hours (TWh) of gas per year to the Baltic States, and up to 21 TWh per year to Poland, and the Baltic gas markets will become part of the single EU gas market,” Amber Grid said.
The project’s price tag is $154.6 million (€132 million). For more information European Investment Bank’s financing for this project and the Serbia project, a 106-mile (171-km) natural gas interconnector between Serbia and Bulgaria, click here.
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