On July 1, Lithuanian Energy Minister Dainius Kreivys paid a visit to Mazeikiai oil refinery (the only refinery in the Baltic States; fully owned by the Polish oil and natural gas major PKN ORLEN) to meet with ORLEN management. The parties signed a letter of intent, confirming their willingness to cooperate on the planned “Bottom of the Barrel” investment project within the refinery (the project is expected to be the largest such investment in the history of Lithuania). Furthermore, that same day, Minister Kreivys backed the idea of developing joint, transboundary offshore wind farms between Lithuania and Poland. Such initiatives and objectives illustrate that Polish-Lithuanian energy cooperation is functioning well, and both countries are still looking for new fields of bilateral sectoral partnership.
Poland and Lithuania are already engaged in several cross-border energy projects. The most visible ones are new interconnectors. First, the Polish and Lithuanian natural gas transmission systems operators (GAZ-SYSTEM and Amber Grid, respectively) are currently constructing the “Gas Interconnector Poland–Lithuania” (GIPL) pipeline, scheduled to be completed by 2022 at the latest. Second, the two Baltic littoral neighbors’ electricity transmission systems operators (Poland’s PSE and Lithuania’s Litgrid) recently took their final investment decisions to provide for a new electricity interconnection between them in the form of of the offshore cable Harmony. Preparatory works are currently in full swing, and the official commissioning date of the project has been scheduled for 2025.