The group building a new pipeline to transport natural gas from Russia to Europe will avoid bringing the gas through Ukraine
Plans for a new pipeline that will bypass Ukraine are moving forward, with an international consortium
planning to studypotential routes.
The consortium, composed of Russia’s Gazprom, France’s Gaz de France, Italy’s Snam, and two German firms, Ruhrgas and Wintershall, has signed a letter of intent with PGNiG, Poland’s state-run oil and gas company. The letter of intent authorizes a feasibility study that will include an analysis of three routes, according to an April 16 Interfax-Poland report.
The three potential routes all begin in Belarus and terminate in Germany or France, where the gas would join existing lines throughout Europe. The feasibility study will help determine the best way to get the gas from Belarus to the European terminus in either Germany or France.
Gazprom envisions a pipeline that transits Belarus, Poland and Slovakia. The line would be capable of carrying 32 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually.
One possible route extends from Brest, in Belarus, to Velke Kapusany, Slovakia, passing east of Lublin, Poland. While this is the shortest of the three routes, Polish environmentalists have voiced objections to the line because it would pass through national parks and forest reserves.
The second alternative passes west of Lublin parallel to existing Polish pipelines.
The third possibility begins in Brest and runs through Krakow, Poland, to Cadca, Slovakia. It involves construction of a new pipeline alongside the existing system to the border between the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
After preliminary feasibility studies are concluded, decisions will be made on the future pipeline routes’ economic effectiveness and technical possibilities.
The consortium was established last fall after participants agreed to develop and implement a project to build a pipeline from Brest, Belarus, to Velke Kapusany, Slovakia.
Poland at first opposed any pipeline bypassing Ukraine for foreign policy reasons. While Polish officials were hesitant to risk irritating Ukraine by participating in the bypass plan, they also saw the economic benefits gas transit could provide as demand for gas increased in the EU.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported on April 16 that Itera, the large U.S.-registered gas trader linked to Gazprom, had completed supplying natural gas to Ukraine as part of a European Commission assistance package.
Itera said in a statement that it had shipped 374 million cubic meters of gas worth 24 million euros to two Ukrainian power plants under an EC agreement to help Ukraine close the Chernobyl nuclear energy plant.
Last December, the European Commission agreed to a 65 million euro grant to help Ukraine finance purchases of fuel for power plants over the next three years to compensate the country for the Chernobyl closure.
