Poland bangs Yamal 2 drum.(Natural gas)

Poland is hoping to secure financial support from other EU countries for construction of a second Yamal gas pipeline from Russia.

Polish economy minister Jacek Piechota said recently that Poland hopes to persuade west European countries to back a second Yamal pipeline to deliver Russian gas, rather than the North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP) proposed by Gazprom. "We believe that the Baltic pipeline is inefficient," Piechota said during a recent seminar on the Polish energy sector in Gdansk.

The minister added that Poland has managed to secure EU financing to study the costs of NEGP alternatives. In addition to a second Yamal line, these also include a pipeline linking Russia with Germany through Baltic states and Poland.

Under an agreement signed between Poland and Russia in the 'nineties, Russian gas giant Gazprom and Polish gas firm PGNiG were supposed to build a second Yamal line, boosting the route's capacity to 67bn [m.sup.3]/yr. But construction of a second pipeline looks unlikely now, with Gazprom increasingly focused on the 1,189km NEGP, which would run from Russia to Germany under the Baltic.

The NEGP is supposed to have capacity of 30bn …