Norwegian energy company Equinor announced on Friday a long-term agreement with Polish dominant gas company PGNiG on annual gas supplies in the amount of 2.4 billion cubic meters via the new Baltic Pipe
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd September, 2022) Norwegian energy company Equinor announced on Friday a long-term agreement with Polish dominant gas company PGNiG on annual gas supplies in the amount of 2.4 billion cubic meters via the new Baltic Pipe.
"The agreement is for 10 years with a volume of around 2.4 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year to be exported through the new Baltic Pipe," Equinor said in a statement.
The Baltic Pipe project connects the Norwegian gas export system to Poland via Denmark and facilitates the flow of Norwegian pipeline gas to Poland, which struggles to replace supplies from Russia ahead of looming winter.
The volumes under the new deal are equivalent to about 15% of the typical annual gas consumption in Poland, the company said, adding that the agreement is valid from January 1, 2023 for the next 10 years.
"Equinor is a strategic business partner for the PGNiG Group playing a crucial role in our efforts to diversify gas supplies to Poland. The contracts we have just signed provide for gas that will be delivered to Poland using the Baltic Pipe pipeline, resulting in a significant strengthening of energy security of our country," the head of PGNiG Iwona Waksmundzka-Olejniczak said.
On April 27, Russian energy giant Gazprom suspended gas exports to the Polish company after it refused to pay for the supplies in rubles. Before that, Poland was receiving up to 10 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Russian gas per year through the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline.
Warsaw hopes to compensate for the volume with the use of the Baltic Pipe pipeline supplying gas from the Norwegian shelf through Denmark. The Baltic Pipe is due to be completed in October 2022. Its full capacity of 10 bcm per year is expected to be reached from the beginning of 2023.
Equinor (formerly Statoil) is the leading operator on the Norwegian continental shelf and operates in more than 30 countries.
