Page 8 - FSUOGM Week 37 2019

FSUOGM
PIPELINES & TRANSPORT FSUOGM
Germany enforces EU court ruling on Gazprom’s Opal use
Opal supplies gas from Nord Stream to customers in Germany and elsewhere in Central Europe
GERMANY
The move will force Gazprom to send more gas via Ukraine.
GERMAN regulator Bundesnetzagentur has ordered the operator of the Opal pipeline to comply with an EU court ruling restricting Gazprom from using more than 50% of its capacity.
The 36.5bn cubic metre per year pipeline serves as a key conduit for Russian gas supplies arriving in Germany via Nord Stream. The Euro- pean Commission decided to lift a 50% cap on Gazprom’s use of its capacity in October 2016, allowing the latter to bid for the remaining capacity. It also ringfenced 20% for third-party suppliers, allowing Gazprom to use this space only if no other bids were put forward.
The Commission argued that the restriction hadleftOpalunder-utilised,butitsdecisionwas opposed by many Eastern Europe countries on the grounds it would help Gazprom consolidate its dominance over the European gas market. Poland responded by initiating a lawsuit against the EU executive, leading to the EU Court of Justice overturning the EC decision earlier this month, stating that it did not comply with bloc energy rules.
Bundesnetzagentur said on September 13 it had ordered Gastransport Opal, the joint
venture between Gazprom and Germany’s Win- tershall Dea that operates Opal, to abide by the court verdict. Effectively immediately, Gastrans- port cannot auction 15.9mn kWh of transport capacity, equivalent to around 12 bcm per year of gas. Its next auction would have been on Sep- tember 16, for capacity in October.
The regulator’s order applies to the 80% of Opal held by Gastransport only, and not the 20% owned by Germany’s Uniper.
Gastransport has responded to the instruc- tion by saying it “has initiated necessary measures to comply with the decree of Bun- desnetzagentur and to respectively restrict the marketing and usage of partly regulated decou- pledconnectioncapacitiesassoonaspossible.”
The restriction at Opal will reduce the amount of gas Gazprom can send via Nord Stream, forcing it to rely on other routes into Europe such as Ukraine and the Yamal-Europe pipe through Belarus and Poland.
“The Bundesnetzagentur believes that Gaz- prom has alternative transport routes and desti- nations available to meet its delivery obligations in the European Union,” the agency said in its statement. ™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 37 18•September•2019