New Europe: Gazelle, Nord Stream deal final blow to Ukraine

Opening the Gazelle natural gas pipeline in the Czech Republic, which connects to Russia‘s Nord Stream, provides a vital energy source for the transportation of natural gas to Western Europe, Germany’s RWE said. Gazelle started working on 14 January. Its capacity is expected to be up to 30 billion cubic metres of gas per a year. “Construction of the Gazelle pipeline is of major strategic importance for both the Czech Republic and for Europe as a whole,” RWE said in a statement.

The 166-kilometre Gazelle connects to the Opal pipeline system in Germany and the Nord Stream dual pipeline system running through the Baltic Sea to Germany. The second string of Nord Stream went into service in October.

Gazelle is part of Russian gas monopoly Gazprom‘s plans to diversify its export options. Konstantin Simonov, the General Director of the National Energy Security Fund in Moscow, told New Europe that the pipeline is very important for decreasing transit risks for Gazprom, especially Ukraine.

For its part, the EU wants to diversify away from Russian gas supplies.

“It’s easier to avoid Ukraine, when you are speaking our supply to Czech Republic, because Gazprom now has an alternative route,” Simonov said. But it will be difficult to increase the supplies of Russian gas to Czech Republic “because it is a very delicate political question for the Czechs,” he said. But it’s possible to have the same amount of our gas export to Czech Republic, he added.  MORE