(Recasts and writes through) WARSAW, Oct 3 (Reuters) – Poland said on Friday that its plan to link to a NATO pipeline network, which is designed to supply troops with fuel in the event of war, will cost 20 billion zlotys ($5.5 billion). Earlier in the day, the ministry and Polish pipeline operator PERN signed a preliminary deal to extend the country's pipelines to connect them to the NATO system. "We are talking about…construction of pipelines over a distance of 300 km…we are talking about one of the largest investments in the security of the Polish state in the last 30 years," Deputy Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk said. Poland has long sought to connect with NATO's Central Europe Pipeline System (CEPS), which dates from the Cold War era and transports jet fuel, gasoline, diesel fuel and naphtha across Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The matter has taken on increased urgency for the eastern flank NATO member since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and more recently, drone incursions. NATO has allocated 60 million zlotys to Poland to undertake the project which is expected to take several years to complete. "At the NATO level, the decision regarding the planning and design of this investment has been made," said Tomczyk. ($1 = 3.6317 zlotys) (Reporting by Marek Strzelecki, Pawel Florkiewicz and Anna Koper; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
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