The European Commission has granted another subsidy for the proposed Baltic Pipe gas interconnection project, with the maximum spending amount currently set at €18.3m. The funds will be granted under the framework of the Connecting Europe Facility Programme (CEF). The purpose of the project is to ship natural gas from Norway to Poland, Denmark, Sweden, the Baltic states and Central and Eastern European regions. Once built, it will strengthen the diversification of supplies of Poland and Denmark and enable further gas market integration and price convergence in Europe.
The 10 bcm/year Baltic Pipe project would be made of five parts: one offshore pipeline in the North Sea between the Norwegian and the Danish gas transmission systems across 105-110 km, then a 210-230 km gas transmission section and a compressor station onshore Denmark, a 275-km offshore pipeline between Denmark and Poland across the Baltic Sea and a 230-340 km onshore gas transmission pipeline in Poland. The project's final investment decision (FID) is expected for the end of 2018. The construction is set to start in 2020 while the commissioning date is expected in 2022.