A new paper has been added to our OGEL 5 (2019) Special Issue on "Natural Gas Pipeline Construction and Regulation"

The Baltic Pipe in Context: The Geopolitical and Normative Analysis

by J. Górski

Introduction

The Baltic Pipe project, defined as "infrastructure connecting the Polish gas transmission system with Norwegian Continental Shelf through the Danish gas transmission system," has been on Poland's and Denmark's drawings board since at least two decades. According to the most recent and concrete plans, this project is now set to be completed by late 2022. This date coincides with the expiry of the so-called Yamal Contract which regulates the supplies of natural gas to Poland via the Yamal-Europe pipeline. The Yamal Contract was last extended in October 2010. According to high-ranking Polish officials, it will not be extended. This political decision would reduce Polish imports of Russian natural to zero from the third quarter of 2022 on. This would also shift Poland's 75 per cent dependence in the gas imports from Russia to a combination of the Norwegian natural has to be supplied via the Baltic Pipe, and of liquefied natural gas (LNG) coming mostly from Qatar and the United States (US), the latter being often dubbed as freedom gas.

Footnotes omitted from this introduction.

You can download the paper here www.ogel.org/article.asp?key=3897