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A pipeline to connect the gas networks of Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Finland to continental Europe will start operating in the second half of 2022 after a delay of nearly a year, the Lithuanian energy minister told Reuters.
Construction of the pipeline connecting Lithuania and Poland will be completed by the end of 2021, as previously forecast, but approval will still take a few months, Dainius Kreivys said in an interview.
The four countries, which are currently supplied with liquefied natural gas (LNG) via a gas pipeline from Russian Gazprom and from a terminal in Klaipeda, Lithuania, will have access to the Central European gas network when the pipeline to Poland goes into operation.
“We are becoming part of a huge, integrated Central European market, gas demand in the region continues to grow and at the same time we expect that Russian gas imports will be significantly restricted by Ukraine,” said Kreivys.
Poland and Lithuania expect to introduce discounted tariffs for pumping gas through the pipeline to ensure their success, Kreivys said along with the two countries discussing “a common tariff range or deeper integration of gas marketsâ€.
“Deeper market integration will help us to fully utilize the infrastructure,” said Kreivys, referring to the interest of Polish companies in using underground gas storage facilities in Latvia and the prospect of selling the LNG import terminal from Klaipeda to Poland.
“After the pipeline goes online, there will probably be no more unused capacity at the terminal,” said Kreivys.
The plant in Klaipeda, which went into operation in 2014, is operated with around half of its annual import capacity of 39 TWh.
Poland is expected to throttle Russian deliveries next year, while a pipeline connecting Norwegian gas fields across the Baltic Sea and Denmark is slated to go on stream at the end of next year.
Another gas connection between Poland and Slovakia will also go online in 2022, giving Poland a direct connection with Ukraine.
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