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Vilnius, Could 10: In a subject close to the Lithuanian village of Jauniunai, the yellow pipeline pops up behind a fence for just some meters earlier than diving again down underground. In any other case, there may be little to be seen of the 500-kilometer (311-mile) fuel pipeline, which begins right here and was lately accomplished to attach Lithuania and Poland.
Extra necessary than the few yellow pipes below a blue sky are the three compressor items on a manufacturing facility web site. They supply the required strain to pressure the pure fuel via the pipe over the Polish border.
The “Fuel Interconnection Poland-Lithuania” (GIPL) is an element of a bigger plan to additional combine Lithuania and two different Baltic states, Latvia and Estonia, into the European Union’s power markets.
The Baltics was once thought-about an “power island” throughout the EU, mentioned Romas Svedas, a former EU diplomat and Lithuania’s deputy power minister, now an impartial advisor with a instructing place at Vilnius College.
“The importance is connecting the three Baltic states into the power system and pipeline community of continental Europe,” he advised DW.
Not a second too quickly
The finished pipeline could not have come at a greater time, particularly for Poland.
What is the mission of the GIPL pipeline? As a substitute of transporting the gas from the extraction web site to the buyer, like your entire Russian pipeline community does, it desires to allow power buying and selling and the change of assets between consumers. The market decides by which path the fuel is at the moment headed.
Fuel has been flowing via the GIPL pipeline within the path of Poland because it went stay originally of Could, after Russia halted fuel provides to Poland and Bulgaria in a single day on the finish of April.
“The pipeline connects the Baltics with the remainder of Europe,” the president of the Lithuanian Confederation of Renewable Sources, Martynas Nagevicius, advised DW. “Meaning it additionally connects Europe’s issues with the Baltics.”
With costs in western Europe rising at file tempo because the area strikes away from Russian fuel, he anticipates additional value will increase within the Baltics, too.
When development started in 2015, it is unlikely anybody thought the pipe can be so urgently wanted by the point it was accomplished. Now, at a ceremony to mark the launch, Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, thanked everybody who contributed to a punctual completion “at a time after we really want the fuel provides.” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda spoke of “power blackmail from the East.”
“Russia’s struggle in opposition to Ukraine has confirmed our lengthy expertise: Russia was and isn’t a dependable associate,” he mentioned.
The Baltic path to power independence
The Baltic states, then again, solemnly introduced on April 1 that that they had already made themselves fully impartial of Russian fuel provides. Now they primarily burn fuel from the US and Norway. It’s delivered through a liquefied pure fuel terminal in Klaipeda, Lithuania, with capability to cowl basically your entire demand of the Baltic states. As well as, there are massive underground fuel storage services in Latvia, a pipeline connection to Finland within the north and now the brand new pipe within the south in direction of Poland.
In keeping with the working firm, Lithuania’s solely oil refinery additionally hasn’t touched Russian provides since April. Lithuania has been pushing for an oil embargo, which the EU is now severely contemplating, for a while.
Within the Baltics, the problem of power is inseparable from safety coverage: “We’ve got a tough historical past and tough relations with our jap neighbors,” says Nagevicius. “Possibly we Lithuanians have all the time been a bit suspicious of Russia and Belarus. That is in all probability one cause why Lithuania has invested in power safety initiatives.”
When Lithuania turned the primary constituent republic to interrupt away from the Soviet Union in 1990 and unilaterally declared independence, Moscow stopped oil provides. Gasoline was rationed and manufacturing needed to be halted at some factories. The embargo ended after three months when Lithuania agreed to political negotiations about its personal future. Lithuania has all the time been skeptical of western European power initiatives with Russia, particularly the 2 Nord Stream pipelines to Germany.
Finish the monopoly, scale back consumption
The Baltic states’ determination to freeze fuel imports within the wake of Russia’s assault on Ukraine was due to this fact not an impulsive one, however moderately the results of years of preparation. In 2014, Lithuania turned the primary Baltic nation to interrupt away from the vertical monopoly of Russian fuel big Gazprom, which historically charged greater costs within the Baltics than, for instance, in Germany. Vitality advisor Romas Svedas recollects how he introduced the related legislative bundle to parliament on the time.
“It was a really painful course of to get the votes for it, whereas Lithuania, as an EU and NATO member, needed to worry difficulties.” Lithuania’s instance was adopted by Estonia in 2015 and Latvia in 2017.
Lowering consumption additionally performed an necessary position in phasing out Russian fuel. In Lithuania, each second family is linked to the district heating community. For a very long time, central burners have been heated nearly solely with Russian fuel. By 2020, nonetheless, this accounted for less than 17%, in contrast with 80% from biomass, based on the Lithuanian District Heating Affiliation.
Subsequent up: Electrical energy
From Nagevicius’ viewpoint, electrical energy is now the most important weak point. In the middle of its accession to the EU in 2004, Lithuania took its Ignalina nuclear energy plant off the grid inside 5 years. The reactor was just like the one in Chernobyl. However the shutdown plunged Lithuania into nice dependence on electrical energy imports. To today, two-thirds of its wants are provided from overseas. The federal government is now pursuing the growth of wind and solar energy. The plan is to extend them from round 25% of Lithuania’s electrical energy combine at present to 93% by 2035.
Greater than 30 years after regaining independence, the three Baltic states are additionally nonetheless linked to Russia’s energy grid, not western Europe’s. “The system will not be safe, as a result of we rely on system providers that they carry out for us,” mentioned Nagevicius. “The frequency will depend on Russia.”
Preparations to attach the Baltic states to the European grid have been underway for years, and a few interconnectors have already been laid. Lithuania is now pushing Brussels to revise the timetable and full the swap earlier than 2025.
On the pipeline opening, President Nauseda steered the primary quarter of 2024. “If the political will is there, initiatives might be accomplished “sooner than deliberate.”
This text was first revealed in German.
Supply: DW
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