It took a while.
From the Epoch Times via ZeroHedge, October 2:
Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,
Natural gas started flowing to Poland through the new Baltic Pipe pipeline from Norway via the Baltic Sea on the morning of Oct. 1, Polish gas pipeline operator Gaz-System said.
“Promises made over six years ago have been kept,” Gaz-System said, according to a translation of its Oct. 1 statement.
Gas started flowing at 6:10 a.m. on Oct. 1 via the Baltic Pipe pipeline, with nominations—or requests for sending gas through the pipeline—totaled 62.4 million kilowatt-hours (kwh), the company added.
“This is a historic moment and one that we’ve been awaiting for many years,” Anna Moskwa, Poland’s minister for climate and the environment, said in a statement.
The pipeline is at the center of Poland’s long-standing strategy to diversify its gas supplies away from Russia.
Construction of the Baltic Pipe system, which has an annual capacity of 10 billion cubic meters, resumed in March after a 33-month hiatus over environmental concerns....
Poland Ready to Offer Germany 'Alternative' to Nord Stream 2: (Norway to Poland Baltic Pipe)
As we've mentioned, most recently in April's The Polish have a saying, “nie mój cyrk, nie moje malpy”, which translates to: “Not my circus, not my monkeys”:
...because of Poland's history the people have an almost genetically endowed talent for punching far above their weight-class (smaller population than California) in the diplomacy/strategy game....If Warsaw can break-up this latest Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Poland will have rendered a huge strategic service to the EU.
And besides, if Russia really wants to sell gas to Germany they can run Novatek's LNG to Germany or to Poland's already expanding Lech Kaczynski LNG Terminal, conveniently located about eight feet from the German border.**
From Sputnik, September 9:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has reportedly told officials that “a final decision has not been taken” on the future of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project following Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny’s alleged ‘poisoning’. Washington has pressured Berlin to cancel the project, with Warsaw actively supporting its US allies on the issue.Poland is ready to offer Germany access to its Baltic Pipe gas pipeline project in place of Nord Stream 2, Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller has said.
“Poland has from the very beginning emphasized that European solidarity in this area should be unambiguous. Therefore, if such a need is expressed by the German side, Poland is open to the idea of using the infrastructure which it is building for its own energy security,” Muller said, speaking to Polish television.According to the spokesman, Nord Stream 2 is problematic for Poland and Europe because it contradicts the idea of European solidarity and energy security.
Mueller’s comments come in the wake of reports by German media Tuesday that Chancellor Merkel told Christian Democratic Union-Christian Social Union faction leaders that a decision on the future of Nord Stream 2 in connection with the alleged ‘poisoning’ of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny had not been made, and that Europe would need to come up with a united response on the matter.....MUCH MORE
Since its announcement last week that it would be treating the Navalny case as an “attempted murder by poisoning,” the German government has faced pressure to cancel the $10.5 billion Nord Stream 2 project, with some German lawmakers as well as Berlin’s foreign allies suggesting abandoning the nearly finished pipeline to ‘punish’ Russia....
**
Natural Gas: "Polish PM: Nord Stream II Would Make Russia Free to act Against Ukraine, So Must Not be Built"
....MUCH MORESomeone should check in with Victoria "Fuck the EU" Nuland to see what the plan to follow-up on the 2014 regime change in Ukraine was.
Because, despite the fact their first concern is their own energy security, the Poles do have a point regarding their frenemy Ukraine, things could get a bit chaotic for Kyiv if Nord Stream 2 is completed as planned.
Maybe the Ukraine follow-up plan is mixed in the same stack as the follow-up for the "We came, we saw, he died" Libya plan.
Here are three stories on some aspects of the current state of play in Eastern European energy geopolitics.
First up, the Russia-friendly outlet Fort Russ, with the headline article, February 16:....
