It will extend over a length of some 480 kilometers, running from the Baltic Sea through Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Brandenburg to southern Saxony and from there over the border to the Czech Republic.
The first string was completed at the end of 2019.
Europe continues to need natural gas in the future for power and heat generation, as well as for industry.
Some of those needs are covered by producing natural gas from our own sources in Germany, the North Sea, the Netherlands, the UK and Norway.
However, gas production in Europe will fall sharply down the road and consumers will increasingly depend on imports.
That means the transport routes will change and additional capacities are necessary.
We are addressing that by expanding the network in an economically sensible way.
The necessity of the network expansion with EUGAL has been confirmed in the auctions for new capacities on the basis of the more capacity market survey.
The pipeline will be integrated into the German gas network and will be built in the regulated environment under the existing European legal framework.
EUGAL is a core element in the expansion of the energy hub at the center of Europe, which ensures that the German and European natural gas network is oriented to demand and more flexible.
Demand can be still be catered for by production within Europe.
However, the latter will fall sharply in the coming years.
The European Network Development Plan for 2017 assumes there will be an import gap of up to 183 billion m3/year by 2035.
By way of comparison: Germany currently consumes around 85 billion m3/year of natural gas.
An additional 51 billion m3/year have been requested from the Czech Republic alone, from Poland 11 billion cubic meters a year. 9 billion cubic meters a year to the Netherlands and 11 billion m3/year to Western Germany were also requested.
EUGAL creates these new connections reliably and flexibly.
The direct connection to the existing natural gas pipelines JAGAL and NEL and the indirect connection to NETRA mean that EUGAL can transport natural gas flexibly in all directions, thus significantly increasing network stability and supply security in Europe.
AN OVERVIEW OF EUGAL
Company in charge of the project |
GASCADE Gastransport GmbH Responsible for construction and future operation |
Shareholders |
GASCADE Gastransport GmbH Fluxys Deutschland GmbH Gasunie Deutschland Transport Services GmbH ONTRAS Gastransport GmbH |
Pipeline length |
Approx. 480 kilometers EUGAL String 1: Approx. 480 kilometers EUGAL String 2: 329 kilometers |
Number of strings | Two strings running in parallel as far as Weißack (Brandenburg), then one string to the German-Czech border |
Internal diameters of the pipes | 1.40 meters (DN 1400) |
Natural gas receiving station | Lubmin near Greifswald (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, on the Baltic Sea) |
Network coupling points |
Planned: Lubmin (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) Kienbaum (Brandenburg) Radeland (Brandenburg) |
Export station | Planned: Deutschneudorf (Saxony, German/Czech border) |
Compressor station | Radeland (Brandenburg) |
Maximum operating pressure (MOP) | 100 bar |
Minimum pipeline depth of cover | 1 meter |
CAPACITY DATA IN DETAIL
Transport capacity p.a. |
55 billion m³ |
|
|
Booked additional transport needs p.a. |
45,1 billion m³ to the Czech Republic* |
Planned transport capacity p.a. from 2020 |
Up to 30.9 billion m³ at Lubmin (entry / EUGAL), |
Planned transport capacity p.a. from 2021 |
Up to 55 billion m³ at Lubmin (entry / EUGAL), |
* Result of the auctions for new transport capacities offered on the European PRISMA capacity platform on 6 March 2017.
The official approval procedures started in spring 2016 with the application conferences for the regional planning procedure and the preparations for the environmental impact assessments.
The regional planning procedures in Brandenburg and Saxony, in which a potential route was to be defined, commenced in the fall of 2016.
As part of that, a preferred route with various variants will be examined.
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the responsible authority examined the regional planning as part of a regional development request.
Construction of the EUGAL gas pipeline began after the successful conclusion of all the planning approval processes in the 3 quarter of 2018. The 1st string was completed at the end of 2019 and then put into operation.
The 2d string will be built in subsections at the same time.
However, the 2d string will only be fully completed around a year later and be able to start operating afterwards.
Project phases (planning) |
Date |
---|---|
Regional planning procedures |
Successfully completed in 2017 |
Planning approval procedure | Mid-2017 to the 3rd quarter of 2018 |
Construction of the first string | Mid-2018 to the end of 2019 |
Construction of the second string | End of 2019 to the end of 2020 |
Construction of the natural gas receiving station |
Start of 2018 to the end of 2019 |
Construction of the compressor station | Start of 2019 to the end of 2020 |
Construction of the export station |
3rd quarter of 2018 to the end of 2019 |