Warsaw is ready to offer Germany to use the prospective Baltic Pipe infrastructure instead of Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline, government spokesman Piotr Muller told Polish television.
WARSAW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th September, 2020) Warsaw is ready to offer Germany to use the prospective Baltic Pipe infrastructure instead of Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline, government spokesman Piotr Muller told Polish television.
The Baltic Pipe, with the annual capacity of 10 billion cubic meters (353 billion cubic feet), will transport natural gas from Norway to Poland via Denmark. It is expected to be put into operation in 2022, when the contract on Russian gas supplies to Poland expires.
"We need to consider various options when it comes to energy security. Poland has stressed from the very beginning that European solidarity in this regard should be unambiguous. Therefore, if the German side declares such needs, Poland is open to [let Berlin] use the infrastructure that it is building for own energy security," Muller said, when asked whether the Baltic Pipe might replace Nord Stream 2.
The official went on to call for a consolidated EU approach to the matter, noting that "it is hard not to look with concern at such initiatives as Nord Stream 2, which contradict the idea of solidarity and energy security."
The US, backed by Poland, Baltic nations and Ukraine, has been actively seeking to disrupt the pipeline, which will carry up to 55 billion cubic meters (1.942 trillion cubic feet) of Russian gas per year to Germany via the Baltic Sea. In December 2019, a threat of US sanctions forced Swiss pipelay company Allseas to quit the project with just 100 miles of the pipeline left to lay. Russia is now finishing the pipeline on its own.
