Baltic Pipe under special supervision. Intelligence Colonel Reveals What’s Happening Around Strategic Gas Pipeline

The Baltic Pipe - through this gas pipeline, gas from Norway should flow to Poland. Telling the details of the project

Baltic Pipe under cover of counterintelligence

The Baltic Pipe is a gas pipeline that has created a new route for transporting natural gas from Norway to the Polish and Danish markets. So far, the only user of the pipeline will be PGNiG, which has signed gas transportation contracts with Baltic Pipe operators, i.e. Danish Energinet and Polish Gaz-System. Do the services secure such infrastructure?

- Of course, such a gas pipeline as the Baltic Pipe, like the entire critical infrastructure in the country, is subject to counterintelligence protection in the broad sense by the special services. The direct responsibility for the security of this facility, in particular physical protection, lies with the company managing it. And due to the fact that the largest energy companies are state-owned, they carry out this security in close cooperation with the special services. However, let’s remember that the essence of the work of the intelligence services, and this is how both the Foreign Intelligence Agency and the Internal Security Agency, which we call the “secret services” should be understood, is precisely intelligence activities, explains Colonel Grzegorz. Maletsky, former head of the Foreign Intelligence Department.

What is the work of the services in this case to protect such a strategic infrastructure for the state? The point is to be faster than any enemy who would like to damage such structures in some way. What are the services doing? - Their task is to identify and monitor threats to the security of the state and its facilities of strategic importance, using methods and means appropriate to this type of institutions. This activity, in simple terms, is to recognize in advance any potential threats from foreign states, criminal or terrorist organizations in order to initiate actions at an early stage to prevent and neutralize these threats, the expert adds.

What about gas supplies from Norway? The former head of PGNiG has no good news

Baltic pipe. Special units track threats to the energy security of the state

Colonel Grzegorz Malecki emphasizes that the authorities must listen to pipeline operators and cooperate. It is essential to prevent potential hazards. How do they work?

- They do this mainly by carrying out reconnaissance reconnaissance, i.e. collection of all information and data on the above threats. Entities managing infrastructure such as Baltic Pipe have the ability to report signals from their electronic systems, physical security systems, which reach the relevant intelligence agencies using well-established communication channels. Based on such knowledge and their own diagnosis, they initiate and coordinate appropriate neutralization actions, the former head of the AB explains to Fact.

The times in which Europe has now fallen are extremely dangerous. There is a military and economic war going on on the continent. No danger can be ruled out.

- The intelligence services have special units that monitor all threats to state security, including energy, both at the strategic level and at the lowest operational level. They do this on the basis of a systematically developed so-called intelligence infrastructure in areas of strategic importance for the security of the state. In practice, this means that in all those places where potential threats may appear, special “antennas” or “detectors” should be created that inform in advance about the symptoms of threats. First of all, we are talking about the so-called personal sources of information, but not only. Today, services have at their disposal a whole range of modern technical devices that monitor, for example, in cyberspace, all signals regarding potential threats. An important source of intelligence is also partner, that is, foreign intelligence services, Colonel Maletsky describes.

The gas pumped by Baltic Pipe is fuel obtained, according to PGNiG, from its own production in Norway, as well as from contracts signed with other gas suppliers operating on the Norwegian continental shelf.

(source: Fact, PPA)

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