[Premium] German Regional Court Gives Date for Opal Decision

The German regional court in Dusseldorf will publish its decision on the Opal capacity question July 28, a court spokesman has told NGW, declining to give more details before then.

The decision however is expected to back up the European Court of Justice, just as it backed it up in December, when it followed the ECJ and lowered the ceiling on the capacity in Opal – a major, 35bn m³/yr line – to 50%. Gazprom is the only booker of capacity for the line, which starts where Nord Stream ends, in northeast Germany, and ends on the German-Czech border.

The ECJ lowered the ceiling as an interim measure while it judged the merits of the case put forward by Polish oil and gas company PGNiG, which said that the European Commission had no right to approve the settlement between German network regulator Bundesnetzagentur and Gazprom. That settlement allowed Gazprom to use up to 90% of Opal and PGNiG said that went against European Union treaties and damaged Polish interests.

While not deciding on the main case – that decision is still a few years away – the ECJ removed the interim measures July 21, as there were no signs that PGNiG would thereby suffer irreparable damage from Gazprom's greater use of Opal.

William Powell