Page 42 - bne_Magazine_June_2017

42 I Central Europe bne June 2017
Photo: www.gazprom.com
EU tries to use Russia's Nord Stream 2 to its own advantage
“The EU's challenge is to turn the tables by unifying the market and exploiting Russia's huge economic dependence on it”
the project, which would add a second 63bn cubic metre a year (cm) pipe- line below the Baltic Sea to Germany (the first was opened in 2012).
Yet, Brussels is still looking for new
importers, which will give CEE member states greater leverage in negotiat-
ing Russian gas supply deals. That is, assuming they sign up wholeheart- edly to the Energy Union and con- tinue to improve cross-border links.
..Tim Gosling in Prague
Gazprom appeared to have once again outfoxed the EU when it announced on April 24 that it had closed a €4.75bn financing deal for the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline with five major European companies, two of them German. The deal secures 50% of the project’s cost from Engie, OMV, Shell, Uniper and Wintershall, but will leave full equity
in the Russian state company’s hands – a reaction to an injunction against the Western companies’ role in the proj- ect due to a Polish legal challenge.
This apparent success followed the European Commission compromise in March with Gazprom over its compe- tition concerns, and the rejigging of limits on the use of the Opal overland pipeline from the Baltic late last year, which have opened the way for greater volumes of Russian gas to flow south.
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It’s the exploitation of such loopholes that has critics blasting Brussels for a limp-wristed stance on Nord Stream 2, which they allege is being influenced by German enthusiasm for the project.
True, the European Commission has struggled to find legal means to halt
ways to reduce Gazprom’s mar-
ket dominance and, thanks to the recent compromise offered by Gaz- prom to avert the EU competition probe, it may have found one.
Gazprom has agreed to allow cross- border trading of its gas between