It is reported that a north south pipeline to connect a liquid natural gas sea terminal in Poland with the Czech Republic and Slovakia has been labeled a priority energy project agreed by the EU's energy ministers.

The Czech Energy Regulatory Office, however, said that the project may not be viable and even says it's possible the projected LNG terminal in Poland will not be completed.

The planned construction of reverse-flow pipeline sections to connect the LNG terminal now under construction in the Polish port of Świnoujście with the Czech and Austrian gas networks won approval as a priority project by energy ministers from the Visegrad 4 countries of Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary and also Romania and Bulgaria, on November 23rd 2011.

The Czech section of it would run from the Polish border with Northern Moravia to the Slovak and Austrian borders in south Moravia and would be built and operated by the Czech gas pipeline network operator Net4Gas, currently owned by RWE of Germany. Net4Gas has named the project Moravia.

Plans are also on the table to connect the Czech gas network with the major hub in Baumgarten near Vienna and the WAG transit pipeline, which, if the EU backed Nabucco pipeline is built, would be a major supply to the CEE region of non-Russian gas from the Caspian and Near East regions.

The ERU warns the LNG terminal in Świnoujście may not be completed. It said that "Of course it's necessary to support the building of cross-border gas pipelines, but in relation to the economic effectiveness of investment. For this reason it’s not evident to place an emphasis on Poland and Austria."

In October 2011, the European Commission approved a non returnable grant of EUR 211.1 million for the project from the EU's Infrastructure and Environment Operational Program. Last month, the project received another EUR 55 million from the EU's European Energy Program for Recovery, meaning that around 45% of the EUR 550 the terminal will be financed by the EU.

However, according to a US Department of Energy report, Poland has the largest shale gas reserves in Europe with up to 22.45 trillion cubic meters, which would be more than enough to supply Poland’s gas requirements for many years to come. Though still in the exploration phase, with the resources being invested in research, the reserves are all but certain to be exploited commercially, which would threaten the viability of relatively expensive LNG imports. The Russians will certainly welcome the ERU's negative assessment

(Sourced from www.ceskapozice.cz)