GAZ-SYSTEM: First Tranche of support for the Baltic Interconnection Skanled/Baltic Pipe under the Recovery Plan

Photo of the article The European Commission has disbursed the first tranche (EUR 15 million) of its funding support granted to the Gas Transmission Operator GAZ-SYSTEM S.A. for the project called Baltic Interconnection Skanled/Baltic Pipe under the “European Energy Programme for Recovery”.


The EUR 50 million co-funding decision for the Baltic Interconnection Skanled/ Baltic Pipe was taken by the European Commission in August this year. GAZ-SYSTEM submitted its application for disbursing the first tranche in September. The funds are provided from the European Energy Programme for Recovery (EEPR, part of the Recovery Plan).

Gas Transmission Operator GAZ-SYSTEM S.A. has received financial support from the European Union for many investment projects to expand its natural-gas transmission infrastructure.

“We benefit from the most extensive EU programmes supporting energy projects and the development of integrated transmission infrastructure. We succeeded in receiving co-financing under the Recovery Plan, the Operational Programme “Infrastructure and Environment” (OPI&E) and the Trans-European Networks – Energy (TEN-E). All co-funding applications submitted so far by the GAZ-SYSTEM under the EEPR and TEN-E have received approvals from the European Commission, which demonstrates that these projects had been well prepared and advanced, and speaks volumes for robust mutual cooperation between the Company's officers and European Commission's representatives”, said Jan Chadam, the CEO of GAZ-SYSTEM S.A.

The Baltic Interconnection Skanled/Baltic Pipe project is of paramount importance to Poland's energy security and diversification of natural-gas supply sources. Under this project, GAZ-SYSTEM builds the compressor station in Goleniów and the gas pipeline Świnoujście – Szczecin. This infrastructure will strengthen the transmission system around the planned Baltic Pipe and link this pipeline with the Świnoujście LNG terminal in the future.

The development of the Polish transmission system in this region is part of the European Commission-supported project “Baltic Interconnection” to develop the infrastructure providing a gas interconnection between the countries of the Baltic Sea region (Poland, Denmark, Sweden). Such infrastructure will allow in the future to offer free LNG re-gasification capacities to European market operators and provide the Scandinavian countries with access to the global LNG market.

GAZ-SYSTEM has earlier received EU support from the TEN-E programme for the preparatory work related to the Baltic Pipe – including for conducting the geophysical survey of the sea bed. This work is related to the pre-investment phase of the Baltic Pipe project and will facilitate its prompt implementation as soon as market demand for such link arises.

GAZ-SYSTEM will receive a total of EUR 75 million from the EEPR funds, EUR 4.31 million from the TEN-E programme, and even up to PLN 1.2 billion under the OPI&E. The whole GAZ-SYSTEM's investment programme until 2014 will close with the amount of more than 8 billion zlotys. A significant part of the outlays will be funded from the Company's internal resources and loans provided by commercial banks. GAZ-SYSTEM has also applied to some European institutions, such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development or the European Investment Bank, for funding support to its strategic investment projects.
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The project “Baltic Interconnection Skanled/ Baltic Pipe” is co-financed under the EU's European Energy Programme for Recovery.
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