Slovak, Polish Firms Sign Deal to Build Gas Interconnector

Polish and Slovak gas transmission system operators GAZ-SYSTEM and Eustream signed an agreement to build a new 165 km (100 mile) interconnector between the two countries, Eustream said on Monday.

The link will improve access to the Baltic gas import terminals as well as Norway via the planned Baltic Pipe.

In the south, it would improve access though the Slovak-Hungarian interconnection as well as the planned Eastring pipeline leading to the Balkans, it said.

"Construction of this gas interconnector will increase regional energy security and create new natural gas trading opportunities to the benefit of European customers,” Eustream chief executive Rastislav Nukovic said in a statement.

Slovakia is a major gas route form Russia via Ukraine to Austria as well as the Czech Republic. But the volume of future flows via this route has been put in question by the second phase of the Nord Stream pipeline which circumvents the region.

The north-south connection has secured up to 107.7 million euros in financial support from the EU.

Reporting by Jan Lopatka