The Danish government granted the Polish-Danish gas pipeline project, the Baltic Pipe, construction permits for Denmark’s offshore territory on October 25.

The permits were the last important paperwork that the project’s operators – Poland’s Gaz-System and Denmark’s Energinet – needed to obtain before kicking off construction of the pipeline in 2020. The Baltic Pipe is a major element in Poland’s plan to wean itself off Russian gas, which currently covers around two-thirds of the country’s demand. 

Poland has said a number of times it would not renew its long-term gas supply contract with Russia’s Gazprom, expiring in 2022, the year of the completion of the Baltic Pipe.

“The approval of the Danish government for the construction of the offshore part of Baltic Pipe is a key element for the project’s implementation,” Tomasz Stepien, CEO of Gaz-System said in a statement.

“As to the project’s implementation, we are currently working on selecting the pipe supplier and the construction and installation works contractor,” Stepien also said.

The pipeline will transport gas from the Norwegian offshore fields operated by the Polish state oil and gas company PGNiG. Its capacity is expected at 10bn cubic metres (bcm) a year. That is around 55% of Poland’s current demand and 45%-47% of the forecast demand in 2023-2024.

To cover the remainder of the demand, Poland is expanding its LNG terminal in the northwestern port of Swinoujscie from 5 bcm to 7.5 bcm as well as planning a floating LNG terminal in the Bay of Gdansk by 2024.

With the new infrastructure coming online soon and the domestic production combined, Poland is hoping to become a regional gas exporter.

The cost of the Baltic Pipeline is estimated at €2.1bn.