Ankara, Turkey. Poland’s president said on Wednesday he will push for NATO’s fuel pipeline network to be extended to the alliance’s eastern flank, an issue military officials regard as a major challenge in the event of a conflict with Russia.
Call for eastern expansion
President Karol Nawrocki said the dual-use nature of pipelines offered an opportunity to strengthen security across NATO’s eastern flank as he arrived at the NATO summit in Ankara.
“The dual-use nature of pipelines … provides the opportunity to build security for NATO’s entire eastern flank, so this is also an opportunity for me and all of central Europe to raise this issue once again,” Nawrocki said.
Scope of the proposal
Senior NATO military officials have called for the alliance’s Cold War-era fuel pipeline network to be extended hundreds of kilometres eastward toward Poland and the three Baltic states, with further extensions toward Finland in the north and Romania in the southeast.
If implemented, the extension could become one of Europe’s biggest infrastructure projects.
Cost and timeline
The project faces significant hurdles, with an estimated cost of 21 billion euros and a completion timeline of 20 to 25 years, according to Der Spiegel magazine.
Existing network
The current 10,000-kilometre pipeline network, buried 80 centimetres underground, spans 12 countries but ends in western Germany. It serves military bases including the U.S. Ramstein Air Base as well as civilian hubs such as Frankfurt airport, Germany’s biggest airport.
The network was originally built to serve primarily Western air forces in a conflict with the then-Soviet Union.
Military fuel needs
In wartime, air forces are expected to account for as much as 85% of total military fuel consumption, according to a study by the Polish Centre for Eastern Studies think tank.
The jet fuel transported through NATO pipelines can also be used by ground vehicles, as additives can make it suitable for trucks and tanks that normally run on diesel.
Storage benefits
Extending the network would also help address storage capacity shortfalls, as fuel inside the pipeline would be additional to fuel held in storage tanks.