Court: Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline not exempt from EU rules

Moscow, August 26 - Neftegaz.RU. The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany will have to obey EU regulations that separate owners of the pipelines from suppliers of gas, a German court ruled on Wednesday, dealing a blow to Russian gas giant Gazprom who sought to have EU rules waived for the controversial pipeline, Oilprice analysed.

Under the EU Gas Directive, pipeline operators in the European Union must ensure fair competition by allowing access to 3^rd parties.

Nord Stream AG, the consortium behind the pipeline, has said that extending the EU directive to a pipeline from a 3^rd country (Russia) is discriminatory and that the revision of that Gas Directive from 2019 was specifically designed to delay or stop Nord Stream 2.

In a ruling on Wednesday, the Dusseldorf Higher Regional Court upheld a previous decision of a German regulator to impose the EU Gas Directive on Nord Stream 2.

Technically, the court’s decision would not prevent the start of the flow of gas - which Gazprom says will take place as early as this year - but the Russian-led pipeline owner may need to restructure and to hold auctions for 3^rd-party suppliers for the gas that would flow through Nord Stream 2.

A spokesperson for the company told The Moscow Times:

• Nord Stream 2 AG maintains that the company is being unlawfully discriminated [against]
• The rejection of Nord Stream 2 AG’s application for a derogation exposes the discriminating effect of the amended EU Gas Directive

A source in the company’s press service told Russian news agency TASS:

• Nord Stream 2 AG company has taken note of the court ruling and will assess it
• We will inform about future steps in due time

Just last week, Gazprom said that Nord Stream 2 might supply 5.6 billion m³ of gas to Europe this year.


Author: Tsvetana Paraskova