The North-South Gas Corridor in the Context of Poland’s Gas Transmission System—A Perfect Opportunity to Diversify Gas Resources

Abstract

The energy sector in Poland is currently calling for dynamic redevelopment and cleaner energy. This country is world famous for its high level of coal production, from which it does not want to retreat in the next two decades. For this reason, it is safer to gradually reduce the use of coal while increasing the consumption of gas and simultaneously developing green energy. However, the Polish gas sector is still dependent on Russian gas supplied through the Yamal gas pipeline. Taking into consideration Polish geopolitics, this state of affairs poses a huge challenge and a threat to Poland’s energy security. That is why the concept of the North-South Gas Corridor was introduced. It is intended to be a network of gas pipelines that connect the countries of Central and South Europe to two gas terminals (in Poland and Croatia), which will supply gas from a chosen source. This article presents the current condition of the gas sector in Poland. It focuses on the North-South Gas Corridor project and its impact on the energy security of Poland. An analysis of documents and field research shows that the North-South Gas Corridor provides Poland with an opportunity to diversify the sources and directions of gas supply over the next few years.

Gas from the South, Not from Russia: The Possibility of Distributing Natural Gas from the Eastern Mediterranean to Poland and Central Europe

“…Although there had already been investments in infrastructure to diversify its supply routes for many years, the war in Ukraine clearly made this process more difficult. In this context, it is worth mentioning that dependence on Russian raw materials for energy has clearly decreased (from around 89% in 2016 to 55% in 2021), which is mainly due to the commissioning of the LNG terminal in Świnoujście [26]. Even before the outbreak of the conflict, the Polish government declared a complete abandonment of Russian gas.…”

“…The Baltic Pipe made it possible to import 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year, corresponding to more than 60% of domestic demand. At the same time, projects were implemented for the NSGC, which is ultimately intended to be a system of gas interconnections between CEEs with LNG terminals located on the Baltic and Adriatic Sea [26,30]. In May 2022, the Poland-Lithuania Interconnector was commissioned, giving the Polish side access to the Lithuanian LNG terminal in Klaip ėda with a capacity of approximately 2 bcm per year [31].…”

“…In line with EPP2040, gas consumption by 2030 will increase by over 3 bcm (in the moderate scenario) even to around 9 bcm (in the optimal scenario), necessitating an increase in gas supply. In the 2030s, natural gas consumption in Poland will remain at 21-27 bcm per year (in recent years, it has fluctuated between 18 and 20 bcm) [26]. For Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, the annual gas consumption in the coming years will be around 25 bcm [7].…”

Serbian Natural Gas Sector in a Gap Between East and West: ChatGPT Decision Support

“…To fulfill obligations to join the European Union (EU) Serbia should diversify sources of supply [37][38][39][40] and to increase share of renewable energy sources. The European Union (EU) is the main trade partner for Serbia.…”

Application of Bayesian Networks in Modeling of Underground Gas Storage Energy Security

“…The index assessing energy security is also covered in [32,33]. The impact of technical infrastructure on energy security is described in [34], and the issue of safety and security of oil and gas pipeline transportation is discussed in [35]. An attempt to estimate the value of the potential shortage of natural gas stocks using stochastic modeling based on the mathematical model of the "Newsvendor problem" is shown in [36].…”