Public hearing starts for new Baltic Pipe environmental permit

The Danish Environmental Protection Agency has commenced an eight-week public hearing for the Baltic Pipe environmental impact assessment (EIA) report and a draft of the new environmental permit.

To remind, the Danish Environmental and Foods Appeal Board repealed the environmental permit for Baltic Pipe issued two years earlier, resulting in the need for a new environmental assessment report to be drafted.

The final permit is expected by 1 March 2022, allowing the construction of the remaining parts of the project where construction was halted in May.

Once the new permit is issued, Energinet can continue building the pipeline on the 40-kilometer long part from the existing Egtved compressor station in Jutland to the Little Belt Strait and the part from the opposite shore of the belt in Middelfart and 38 kilometers eastward to the village of Brylle in the middle of the Funen Island.

Power company Cerius will also resume construction of the remaining of the two 50,000-volt powerlines supplying the compressor station in Everdrup in the southern part of Zealand.

Baltic Pipe is still expected to deliver partial capacity on the original operational date on 1 October 2022 by using part of the existing gas transmission system until 1 January 2023 when the whole project will become operational and be able to deliver the full capacity of 10 BCM. 

“It has been a long and very thorough process where we have been looking into new aspects of the project following the decision by the appeals board last summer,” said Søren Juul Larsen, Baltic Pipe project manager at Energinet.

“It is important that we describe the planned construction work and that we take the necessary precautions to protect vulnerable species. We are happy that DEPA have started the hearing phase, in order for us to be ready for the coming construction season, where we will be busy making up for lost time on the parts of the project, that was originally planned for construction this year.”

The construction of Baltic Pipe’s offshore section was completed on 18 November when the last weld was made on the pipeline connecting the coasts of Denmark and Poland.

The construction of the gas pipeline began on 27 June and took place across the maritime areas of Denmark, Sweden and Poland.

On 14 September, the offshore pipeline of the project reached landfall in Poland. Shortly after, two offshore sections, one leading from Denmark and the other pulled through the microtunnel to the landfall in Poland, were connected at sea.