Illustrative stock photo (source: SME)
For the first time in history, the Slovak and Polish gas transmission networks were directly interconnected in early August.
The new gas pipeline will become an important part of the European energy North-South gas interconnections infrastructure priority corridor, the SITA newswire reported.
“The border welding is a symbol of significant progress on both sides of the border,” said Rastislav Ňukovič, head of the Slovak gas transmission system operator, Eustream, as quoted by SITA.
The new interconnection will help enhance the regional security of natural gas supplies, said Tomasz Stepien, board chairman of the Polish gas transmission system operator Gaz-System.
“The work is more than 90-percent complete,” he added, as quoted by SITA. “We plan to finish the investment and launch the gas pipeline on the market in compliance with the announced deadlines, i.e. in the first quarter of 2022.”
The Polish-Slovak gas interconnector is about 164 kilometres long, with 61.3 kilometres in Poland and 103 kilometres in Slovakia from the state border to the compressor station in Veľké Kapušany (Košice Region). Its transmission capacity will be 4.7 billion cubic metres in the direction to Slovakia and 5.7 billion cubic metres to Poland, SITA wrote.
