MOU signed for Yamal-Europe 2 gas pipeline

April 5, 2013
Gazprom and EuRoPol Gaz have signed a memorandum of understanding stipulating that the proposed Yamal-Europe 2 natural gas pipeline would transit Poland en route to Slovakia and Hungary.

Gazprom and EuRoPol Gaz have signed a memorandum of understanding stipulating that the proposed Yamal-Europe 2 natural gas pipeline would transit Poland en route to Slovakia and Hungary.

EuRoPol Gaz operates the 684-km Polish section of the existing Yamal-Europe gas pipeline. Gazprom and Poland Oil & Gas Co. (PGNiG) are the principal shareholders.

A feasibility study is expected to be complete within 6 months.

The preliminary agreement between Gazprom and EuRoPol Gaz follows reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had instructed Alexey Miller, chairman of Gazprom’s management committee, to advance the Yamal-Europe 2 project (OGJ Online, Apr. 4, 2012).

The Yamal-Europe connects a gas transmission hub at Torzhok, Russia, with the German transmission system near the German border with Poland, also transiting Belarus. More than 2,000 km long, it has design capacity of 32.9 billion cu m/year.

The Yamal-Europe 2 project would be able to carry as much as 15 billion cu m/year of gas from the Russia-Belarus border, paralleling the existing Yamal-Europe route in Belarus and crossing Poland toward Slovakia.