Russian fittings might have been installed during the construction of the strategically important Gas Interconnection Poland–Lithuania (GIPL) launched in May 2022, according to an investigation by the 15min.lt news website and investigative journalism centres in Poland, Latvia and Romania.
In 2020, LRT reported that Alvora, the general contractor of the project, signed a contract with Global Pipe Trade (now ChelPipe International), a Swiss company belonging to the Russian ChelPipe Group, under which pipeline parts were to be purchased from the Russian Chelyabinsk plant. Later, in June last year, LRT reported Alvora told workers to remove the manufacturer's marking from the pipeline parts.
Further reading
Amber Grid, the state-owned gas network operator, said it had launched an investigation in February last year, but found no discrepancies. The pipeline became operational on May 1, 2022.
However, new evidence suggests Russian parts may have indeed ended up being used and covered up in a potentially fraudulent scheme.
Red flags raised years ago
The project's main contractor Alvora signed a contract with the then Global Pipe Trade (now named ChelPipe International), a Swiss-registered company that is part of the Russian ChelPipe Group, which supports Russia's military infrastructure. In response, Amber Grid ordered the contractors to purchase fittings from European producers.
In 2021, Alvora's former partner, Šiaulių Dujotiekio Statyba, informed Amber Grid of possible falsifications in the documents, alleging that Alvora could have installed ChelPipe fittings by "planting" them under forged certificates of Polish and Romanian manufacturers. Alvora denies the allegations.
The suspicious fittings, a total of 158 units, are worth around 300,000 euros. They were purchased and installed by Alvora in 2020 and they were manufactured by Poland's Tasta Armatura and Romania's Sara SRL. Tasta Armatura's products for the pipeline were sold by Latvia's Conti Chemicals.
But the company’s certificates for the Polish Tasta parts and the Romanian Sara products are now raising questions.
Šiaulių Dujotiekio Statyba claims to have gathered evidence that neither Tasta Armatura nor Sara could produce some of the fittings used during the GIPL construction, because the two companies are not accredited to produce such equipment.
Further reading
Šiaulių Dujotiekio Statyba claims that the fittings were made by Eterno, a Russian metallurgical plant based in Chelyabinsk. Šiaulių Dujotiekio Statyba has also provided certificates and product drawings from Eterno, which is part of the ChelPipe group, which match those indicated on the European quality certificates.
In response, Poland's technical watchdog (UDT) has launched an investigation.
On June 2, Amber Grid told 15min that the Vilnius Regional Prosecutor's Office had also launched a pre-trial investigation, adding that the state-owned company had itself turned to the prosecutor on the same day "as part of an internal investigation and evaluation of the information".
This comes despite Amber Grid previously claiming its internal probe found no wrongdoing. The state-owned gas network operator, as well as its shareholder Epso-G, are now drawing up crisis management plans, according to 15min.lt.
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