Ukraine plans to build a new pipeline with a capacity of 8-10 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Poland at the cost of USD 240-245 million by 2020. Radoslaw Dudzinski, the deputy board chairman of the Polenergia company (Poland), announced this to the Ukrinform news agency at the Baltic Business Forum, which is taking place in Swinoujscie (Poland).
Dudzinski said that a 110-kilometer gas pipeline would be built in Ukraine from the Drozdovychi gas metering station (near the border with Poland) to the Bilche Volytsya underground gas storage facilities (17 billion cubic meters of gas) and the Oparske underground gas storage facilities (1.9 billion cubic meters).
At the same time, the operator of the Polish gas transmission system, Gaz-System, will build the relevant transport infrastructure on the other side of the border.
"This can be considered as a potential for a strategic gas reserve, in which European firms operating on the Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, and Romanian markets will be able to accumulate gas in Ukrainian storage facilities during the summer season with the aim of using it in the winter," Dudzinski said.
Dudzinski added that construction of the gas pipeline, which is scheduled to be completed in the period of 2019-2020, is currently at the stage of feasibility studies, which the Ukrtransgas gas company (Ukraine) will prepare jointly with Gaz-System. Based on a protocol of intent, Polenergia is cooperating with the Naftogaz of Ukraine state oil and gas company om the concept for implementation of this project, search for investors, and its possible participation in its implementation.
The representative of Polenergia said that this gas pipeline would enable Ukraine to receive via Poland natural gas bought from the companies Statoil, BP, Shell, RWE, or various traders on the German market, as well as liquefied natural gas, which will be transported from the LNG terminal in Swinoujscie.
The new Polish-Ukrainian gas link will be part of a broad East-West corridor, as part of which a new German-Polish gas pipeline will also be constructed at the cost of EUR 240-260 million. The East-West corridor will become an integral part of the North-South gas corridor from the LNG terminal in Swinoujscie through the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the Adriatic Sea coast.
