The final investment decision on the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline is to be taken this year. The Russians exaggerate the fears of the industry in Poland in order to make the project more successful, at least for domestic policy purposes. Is it just because of that? – Wojciech Jakóbik, editor-in-chief of BiznesAlert.pl, wonders.
Russia is announcing the HEG conference
The Russian OilCapital.ru portal quotes the press breakfast statements of Hermes Energy Group president, in which I participated. In fact, questions were asked by a journalist with a Russian accent, but it is interesting that he was attracted to Poland by a simple event of this kind.
– The main risk was that the project would not be completed on time – allegedly said Piotr Kasprzak, President of HEG, quoted by OilCapital.ru, at the conference. The project is scheduled for October 2022, when the PGNiG-Gazprom gas contract will also be completed. HEG’s competition intends to abandon the contract and replace it with a new, more flexible one or completely abandon supplies from the East. Baltic Pipe is supposed to make it possible. However, the timetable is tight.
– It is 2018. The final investment decision should be made by 31 December this year. We are talking about building a gas pipeline that will intersect with others. There is also a territorial dispute – enumerates Kasprzak, quoted by the Russians. Interestingly, they do not cite any further comments from HEG’s CEO, who assured that his company’s signalling of the territorial dispute led to progress in Poland-Denmark’s negotiations on territorial waters. Moreover, the Polish government stresses that the dispute will not have any impact on Baltic Pipe as a result of the interim agreement, about which BiznesAlert.pl wrote as the first in Poland.
Communication of the day about Baltic Pipe
– If we do not manage to build on time, we will be condemned to supplies from the East – allegedly said Kasprzak. The report from the event is available at BiznesAlert.pl I have written it down faithfully, and in the recording, I cannot find any words about Poland being condemned to deliveries from Russia. This would be an incredible utterance, because even without Baltic Pipe, the LNG terminal in Świnoujście and the reverse side of the Yamal gas pipeline remain an alternative. It is worth recalling that, as Kasprzak pointed out during the conference, HEG is not against Baltic Pipe and admits that it is not disturbed by Russian supplies. – I wouldn’t want to be in a situation where the whole of Europe is buying cheap gas from Russia and Poles buy gas from Norway – the CEO warned.
The OilCapital.ru quotations are therefore taken out of context, thereby exacerbating the HEG message. No other arguments were presented in the discussion on Baltic Pipe. This industry portal is read in Russia, so the message can be used internally. However, Russian portals of this type are increasingly being read in the West, including Poland. Is it a question of reinforcing the message about a certain defeat of Baltic Pipe? It would be an exaggerated deletion of the project. Russia – colloquially speaking – is looking for a stick to beat the Baltic Pipe, which is closest to its implementation in history. It can be seen that a few words of the Polish competition considering the supply of Russian gas can be used for it. Meanwhile, Denmark, Norway and Poland are continuing preparations for the construction of the pipeline. Does this mean that Russia has so far failed to find the right stick?