Page 12 - EurOil Week 03 2023

EurOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT EurOil

Enagas buys 20% interest in BBL gas pipe

linking Netherlands and UK

SPAIN SPAIN’S Enagas has reached a deal to acquire provisional plan for a Europe-wide hydrogen
a 20% stake in Dutch BBL, the operator of a network. It could be used to transport blue and
Uniper is selling to 241-km gas pipeline linking the UK and the green hydrogen between the UK and mainland
comply with EU state Netherlands. Europe. The pipelines of Noordgastransport
aid rules. The seller is Germany’s Uniper, with the deal’s (NGT) and NOGAT in the Netherlands have
price tag set at €75mn ($81.5mn). The other already been certified for transporting green
shareholders in the pipeline are Gasunie with hydrogen.
60% and Fluxys with 20%. The deal will require regulatory approval and
The Balgzand-Bacton Line (BBL) undersea is also subject to the pre-emptive rights of exist-
gas pipeline has a maximum capacity of 15bn ing co-owners of the BBL pipeline.
cubic metres per year of flow from Balgzand in As for Uniper, the company said the divest-
the Netherlands to Bacton in the UK. It can also ment of the non-strategic asset was part of the
pump 5 bcm per year in the opposition direction. remedies that it must fulfil under EU state aid
Enagas is Spain’s transmission system oper- law. Uniper has been hit hard by the European
ator (TSO), operating the country’s gas grid energy crisis, particularly because it lost its Rus-
and also four LNG regasification terminals in sian gas supply when Gazprom began restricting
Huelva, Barcelona, Cartagena and Gijon. The deliveries to its customers last year. It had to be
company said the deal at BBL would bolster its bailed out by Germany’s government last year
position in Europe. in the largest corporate rescue in the country’s
The BBL pipeline has been included in the history. ™

Operator repairs exploded gas pipeline

in northern Lithuania

LITHUANIA AN exploded gas pipeline in Lithuania’s north- “Works are regularly done to ensure the safety
ern district of Pasvalys was repaired on the night of the pipeline. We have also done this type of
The reason for the of January 15 and will be back in operation after works on this pipeline. But they were of a nature
explosion is unclear. additional safety checks. The reason of the explo- that did not have a direct impact on the pipeline
sion is unclear as of now and an investigation is itself, they were related to the re-wrapping of the
ongoing, Nemunas Biknius, CEO of Amber pipeline’s insulation. They were done last week,”
Grid, the operator of Lithuania’s gas pipelines, he told BNS.
said, LRT.lt, the website of public broadcaster “The pipeline should not have been damaged
LRT, reported on January 16. during the works,” he added.
“If we find that any additional work needs to On January 15, police opened a pre-trial
be done, we will carry it out. But we plan to put investigation to find out whether the mainte-
the pipeline into operation tomorrow [January nance and repair work on the gas pipeline was
16], around noon,” Biknius told BNS, a Baltic carried out properly.
newswire. “An investigation will be carried out to see if
The explosion of a gas pipeline was reported there was no additional external impact. For our
at around 5pm on January 13 in the village of part, we consider it to be a technical seam defect,”
Pasvalio Vienkiemiai, in the District of Pasvalys. Biknius said, adding that such an investigation is
The fire was localised after the valves were normal practice in such cases.
closed. According to Amber Grid, gas supply to Amber Grid has already scheduled internal
consumers was largely unaffected. diagnostics, will review the protocols, and will
Insulation works had recently been car- carry out checks on this and other pipelines,
ried out at the site of the exploded gas pipeline, according to the CEO of Amber Grid, LRT.lt
Biknius said. said. ™

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 03 20•January•2023