GAZ-SYSTEM applied to the Ministry of Maritime Economy and Inland Shipping and the Maritime Offices in Szczecin and Słupsk for administrative decisions regarding the terms of laying and maintaining the offshore Baltic Pipe gas pipeline.

The documents submitted on January 24 and 25, 2018 pertain to 1 km wide survey corridors delineated for three alternative gas pipeline routes within the Polish maritime territory. 

Under the said procedures, the route of the gas pipeline shall be agreed with a number of institutions, including competent Ministers: of Energy, Economy, Natural Environment, Fishery, Culture and National Heritage, Administration and National Defense. In addition, applications will be assessed by authorities of three communes (Rewal, Trzebiatow, Mielno), where the onshore section of the gas pipeline is planned.

The corridors indicated in the location permits will be subject to in-depth surveys including environmental, technological and social analyses. They will serve as a basis for selection of the final, optimum route of the gas pipeline and development of a construction design. Until surveys and analyses have been completed, all variants of the venture are recognized as equivalent. 

Safety of natural environment as well as mitigation of the impact on other sea users are of pivotal importance in the implementation of such investment projects as Baltic Pipe. The procedures that have been instituted will provide for the determination whether the planned gas pipeline routes interfere with other methods of using the marine resources – already in the early design phase – declares Tomasz Stepien, CEO of GAZ-SYSTEM.

The location permits, when issued, do not mean yet the final approval of the investment project. In the following stages of the process, the investor will need to obtain a decision on environmental conditions, a location decision for gas pipeline corridor and a construction permit.