Yamal-Europe Gas Pipeline

From Global Energy Monitor
This article is part of the Global Fossil Infrastructure Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.
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Yamal-Europe Gas Pipeline (Russian: Газопровод "Ямал-Европа") is an operating gas pipeline (currently, idle), which transports gas from the Yamal Peninsula to European consumers, and travels across Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany.[1]

Location

The pipeline carries gas from Torzhok to Smolensk in Russia through Minsk, Belarus, and Poland and into eastern Germany, where it connects with the Western European gas grid at Frankfurt an Der Oder.[2][3]

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Project Details

  • Operator: Gazprom, EuRoPol Gaz, Gascade Gastransport GmbH[3]
  • Owner: Gazprom, EuRoPol Gaz, Gascade Gastransport GmbH[3][4][5]
  • Paren company: Gazprom, PGNiG, WINGAS[3][6]
  • Current capacity: 33 bcm/y[3][7]
  • Length: 1,660 km / 1,031.48 miles[3]
  • Diameter: 1420 mm

History

Belarus, Poland, and Russia signed intergovernmental agreements on the Yamal-Europe Pipeline in 1993, and the following year a Gazprom-Wintershall joint venture began building the German segment. First-stage gas transmission began in 1997, and the segments through Belarus and Poland were finished in 1999. In 2006, when construction of all compressor stations was accomplished, the pipeline reached the final-stage capacity of 33 bcm/y. [11] Plans to build a second 33 bcm/y pipeline, Yamal–Europe Two, through Belarus onward to Europe had been discussed, but Poland and Russia disagreed over the route. Poland wanted it to go through southeast Poland, to Slovakia and Central Europe. Those plans were indefinitely shelved in 2007 in favor of constructing the Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany.[5]

Gazprom and the Belarusian state company Beltransgaz have been in conflict over the amount of debt of Belarus for gas purchases, as since 2006 Russia has sought to raise its price to reflect market/global prices. President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenka insisted that the country’s participation in building the Union State with Russia and other former Soviet republics entitled it to a recalculation of gas import prices from Russia. Ultimately, Gazprom gained half-ownership of Beltransgaz in partial payment of the accumulating debt. In June 2010, Russia began gradually reducing volumes transmitted to Belarus, which responded by paying the amounts demanded.[5]

Ownership

Gazprom is the sole owner of the Russian and Belarusian gas pipeline section. EuRoPol Gaz (a joint venture of Gazprom and Polish PGNiG) owns the Polish pipeline section of the gas pipeline. Gascade Gastransport GmbH (a joint venture of Gazprom and Wintershall Holding GmbH) owns the German section of the gas pipeline.[12]

Background

The 1,660 km-long gas pipeline can carry 33 billion cubic meters a year. It transports natural gas from the Yamal peninsula to European consumers. Construction began in 1994 and the pipeline was fully commissioned in 2006. The total cost was estimated around $36 billion.[1]

From Malnow, Poland to Slonim, Belarus the pipeline is known as "EuRoPoL".[13]

Gas flows to Europe via the pipeline started falling at the end of July 2021 and halved in August after a fire at a Gazprom processing plant in Urengoy, in the Yamal-Nenets region.[14] This supply disruption contributed to a record spike in European gas and power prices in late summer, though gas flows through the pipeline had recovered to previous levels by mid-September.[15]

In May, 2022, Gazprom stopped all flow of gas through the Polish section of the pipeline, claiming that Poland had "violated Gazprom's rights many times and imposed sanctions on the Russian energy giant."[16] In December 2022, Russia announced that it was prepared to resume gas supplies to Europe via the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline.[17] As of September 2024, the pipeline is still idle.[9] In 2022-2023, a section of the pipeline was used for eastward gas flows to Poland from Germany.[18]

Route and Technical Details

The 402 km Russian segment starts from the Torzhok gas transmission hub in Tver Oblast. This section receives gas from the Northern Tyumen Regions (SRTO)–Torzhok Gas Pipeline. It consists of compressor stations at Rzhevskaya, Kholm-Zhirkovskaya and Smolenskaya.[1]

The 575 km Belarusian section runs across Belarus and includes five compression stations, at Nesvizhskaya, Krupskaya, Slonimskaya, Minskaya and Orshanskaya. It passes through nearly 200 kilometers of bogs, 75 river crossings, 10 railways lines and three power transmission networks.[1]

The Polish section is 683 km long and passes through 32 railway lines, 246 roads, streams and seven large rivers.[1] This section also includes five compressor stations at Ciechanow, Szamotuly, Zambrow, Wloclawek and Kondratki.[1]

The westernmost point of the gas pipeline is the Mallnow compressor station near Frankfurt an der Oder in the vicinity of the German-Polish border. There, the gas pipeline links up with the YAGAL-Nord gas transmission system, which is, in turn, connected to the STEGAL – MIDAL – Rehden UGS gas transmission system.[1]

Identifiers

The SciGrid IGG dataset refers to the pipeline as INET_PL_2724, INET_PL_2723, INET_PL_2726, INET_PL_2727, INET_PL_2728 and INET_PL_2820.[19]

Articles and resources

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Yamal – Europe Gas Pipeline, Hydrocarbons Technology, accessed April, 2018
  2. Gazprom's Yamal-Europe gas pipeline project nears start-up, Oil & Gas Journal, November 8, 1999
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 "Yamal – Europe". www.gazprom.com. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  4. "Yamal-Europe Gas Pipeline". NS Energy Business. Retrieved Jul 21st, 2022. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 The Yamal-Europe Natural Gas Pipeline, Oil Price.com, February 14, 2011
  6. "Eastbound gas flows resume on Russian Yamal-Europe pipeline". www.euractiv.com/. February 3, 2022. Retrieved August 10, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. 7.0 7.1 "Энергоснабжение Республики Беларусь в случае остановки поставок энергоресурсов из Российской Федерации" (PDF). iSANS. February 2023. Retrieved September 16, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. "Вероятность того, что газопровод «Турецкий поток» в ближайшие месяцы может стать объектом диверсионной атаки, становится весьма высокой". Нефть Капитал. July 5, 2023. Retrieved August 10, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. 9.0 9.1 "Transit of Russian gas through Ukraine: Current situation and prospects". news.az. June 28, 2024. Retrieved September 16, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. "История компании". ОАО «Газпром трансгаз Беларусь». 2024. Retrieved September 18, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. 11.0 11.1 "Газопровод «Ямал – Европа»: куда идет ямальский газ". Ямал Медиа. October 17, 2022. Retrieved August 10, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. Yamal-Europe Gas Pipeline, accessed April, 2018
  13. European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (October 2020). "TYNDP 2020 - MAP – Transmission" (PDF). ENTSOG. Retrieved December 4, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  14. Natalia Chumakova, Oksana Kobzeva, UPDATE 2-Gazprom cancels Aug condensate exports after Urengoy fire, sources say, Reuters, Aug. 11, 2021
  15. Tom Marzec-Manser, Gascade data, Twitter, Sep. 14, 2021
  16. "Russia's Gazprom no longer to use Polish section of Yamal-Europe gas pipeline". Retrieved 2022-07-21.
  17. "Russia ready to resume gas supply to Europe via Yamal-Europe gas pipeline". CNN. December 25, 2022. Retrieved August 10, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  18. "Eastward gas flows halt on Yamal-Europe pipeline". Natural Gas World. May 30, 2023. Retrieved September 16, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  19. Diettrich, Pluta, Medrjoubi (July 23, 2020). "The combined IGG gas transmission network data set". DLR Institute for Networked Energy Systems. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

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