Brussels, 30/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 29 October, the Russian gas company Gazprom announced that it had failed to reach an agreement in its negotiations with the European Commission for better access to the German gas pipeline OPAL and stated that it wants to start new talks with the next Commission.
“The European Commission has failed to take a decision on the use of the OPAL gas pipeline capacities. Decisions have been postponed three times over the year. Last time, the decision had been postponed to late October”, commented a Gazprom spokesperson, Sergey Kupriyanov. “Gazprom is initiating new talks with the newly elected lineup of the European Commission when it is ready for this. We will proceed from our initial position on the 100% utilisation of the OPAL gas pipeline”, he added.
Over at the Commission, a source stated on Thursday that the decision was “still in suspense”.
On 12 September, the Commission and the German Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) agreed to extend the deadline for a decision on whether to grant Gazprom better access to the OPAL pipeline. As things stand, the Russian gas company only has limited access to it on the grounds of the 'gas' directive of 2009, which contains a requirement for gas supply and transport network activities to be unbundled.
“The reason for the prolongation is that certain technical aspects require further attention. The deadline for issuing a decision on a revised OPAL exemption is end of October, subject to prolongation under the provisions of the 'gas' directive”, the press services of Commissioner Oettinger told us on Thursday.
The OPAL gas pipeline, which links Greifswald, in north-eastern Germany, to Olbernhau, on the border between Germany and the Czech Republic, connects the German-Russian Nord Stream gas pipeline, in the Baltic Sea, to the JAGAL pipeline (itself connected to the Yamal-Europe pipeline) and to the STEGAL pipeline, which is connected to the Russian gas transport route via the Czech Republic and Slovakia. (EH)