EC to study Germany’s Nord Stream-2 ruling, took no part in it

BURSSELS, May 18 (PRIME) -- The European Commission (EC) is yet to receive and consider the German regulator’s decision on the Nord Stream-2 natural gas pipeline as it took no part in the decision, a representative of the commission told PRIME late on May 15.

“We are yet to receive the final decision. It was made at a national level in accordance with the gas directive, the European Commission took no part in the process of its approval,” the representative said.

The commission will analyze the decision as soon as it receives the ruling’s text, the representative said.

The Nord Stream-2 project envisages construction of two lines of a natural gas pipeline with an annual capacity of up to 55 billion cubic meters, running from the Russian shore to Germany under the Baltic Sea. Russian gas giant Gazprom is implementing the project together with Germany’s E.ON and BASF, Royal Dutch Shell, Austria’s OMV, and France’s Engie.

Earlier on May 15, Germany's Federal Network Agency (BNA) turned down an application of the pipeline’s operator Nord Stream 2 AG to exempt the project from the rules of a new E.U. gas directive meaning that the pipeline is liable to comply with the price regulation rules, to grant access to a third party, and to split the operator and the supplier, like all gas pipelines finished after May 23, 2019.

Nord Stream 2 AG said that it disagreed with the regulator’s decision, because the pipeline should be considered as finished in economic functionality terms as of May 23, 2019 because the operator had made non-returnable investment of 1 billion euros long before the E.U. announced its plans to adjust the gas directive.

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