UPDATE: NStream 2 to assess German court ruling on EU Gas Directive

(adds comment in paragraph 4)

MOSCOW, Aug 25 (PRIME) -- Nord Stream 2 AG, the operator of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, will evaluate the decision of the German court denying its appeal against inclusion of the pipeline into the E.U. Gas Directive, the company is still against the position, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

Bloomberg reported quoting a statement of the Higher Regional Court of Dusseldorf that the court denied the company’s suit against the German Federal Network Agency’s decision that obliged the pipeline to fall under the E.U. Gas Directive. The directive stipulates that the pipeline should be partially filled by natural gas of other suppliers or it should be partially owned by a third party in the territory of the E.U.

“Nord Stream 2 AG has noted the court’s decision and it will evaluate it. We will notify about our further steps in due time,” the company said.

“It is up to the company to decide on its further actions. We can only repeat our earlier statements that Nord Stream 2 is an exclusively commercial international project, which is designed to make a significant contribution to the energy security of the whole Europe,” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Denial of the company’s suit shows a discriminatory effect of the E.U. Gas Directive. The directive was amended on May 23, 2019, while financing of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was finished by that time. The company based its actions on the then legal base, and invested several billions of euros in the pipe long before the European Commission announced plans to amend the E.U. Gas Directive, the company said.

The denial of the German Federal Network Agency to exclude the project from the gas directive does not take into account the fundamental principles of investment protection. At the same time, another suit of the company against the directive’s amendments is being considered by the E.U. Court of Justice, the company added.

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 builds the pipeline together with Germany’s Uniper and Wintershall Dea, Royal Dutch Shell, Austria’s OMV, and France’s Engie.

End