Official: European Commission to assess court ruling on OPAL

BRUSSELS, Sep 11 (PRIME) -- The European Commission will assess a decision of the E.U. Court of Justice concerning Gazprom’s access to the OPAL gas pipeline and will decide on an opportunity to contest it, the commission’s Vice President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic said at a press conference on Wednesday.

“The decision was made as late as yesterday… We will analyze its details and then decide what our further actions will be,” Sefcovic said.

On Tuesday, the E.U. Court of Justice cancelled a ruling of the European Commission that allowed access of Russian gas giant Gazprom to 100% of the OPAL capacities.

Under the third energy package, Gazprom has access to half of the OPAL capacities, or to 12.8 billion cubic meters. The European Commission decided in October 2016 that Gazprom will retain its right to use half of the pipeline’s capacity and will be given admission to auctions for another 40%. Poland’s PGNiG challenged the decision in December of the year saying it is a threat to safety of gas supplies to the E.U.

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