Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak believes that the situation with limiting Gazprom's access to Germany's OPAL pipeline capacity will be resolved and the pipeline will be used in full volume
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th October, 2019) Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak believes that the situation with limiting Gazprom's access to Germany's OPAL pipeline capacity will be resolved and the pipeline will be used in full volume.
"To my mind, the decision [to limit Gazprom's access to OPAL] is rather a political one, which was taken for the sake of creating a situation before the negotiations on gas transit in which we would see a court decision that would allow us to further discuss gas pumping volumes with our Ukrainian partners. Therefore, we will see and expect the European Commission to take action to protect its decisions. I'm sure that today or tomorrow, as legal processes around the Opal gas pipeline develop, everything will return to its place and this gas pipeline will be used in full volume," Novak told Rossiya 24 broadcaster.
The European Commission's decision of 2016 gave the Russian company a possibility to additionally transport up to 10.2 billion cubic meters of gas per year via OPAL, taking part in relevant auctions. OPAL receives gas from the Nord Stream pipeline, which is laid from Russia's Vyborg to German Greifswald.
However, on September 9, the EU court overruled the European Commission's decision of 2016 as violating the energy solidarity principle. According to the decision, Gazprom must reduce gas transit via OPAL to 50 percent of the capacity. The European Commission promised to carefully analyze this decision.
