‘Defeat of Poland’: Court Allows Gazprom Access to Opal Auctions

The appellate court in Duesseldorf has issued a final ruling in the case of the Opal pipeline, removing all obstacles to expanding access to this pipeline for Russian Gazprom, and Poland, as the plaintiff, will have to acknowledge a defeat that, paradoxically, benefits it as well as Ukraine, writes the Russian portal Pogled (Vzglyad).

The court has lifted all barriers to the implementation of auctions for Opal’s capacities, a pipeline that is a continuation of the Nord Stream through which Russian gas is transported to Europe via the Baltic Sea and is of particular importance to Germany.

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This is an indisputable victory for Gazprom and a defeat for Poland, especially from a political point of view, Russian commentators assess, noting that this country is trying to obstruct the implementation of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 projects, on behalf of the Americans and the import of their gas into Europe, where Poland would be an important transit zone.

For more than five years, Gazprom has been unable to utilize the full capacity of Nord Stream, as under the rules of the Third Energy Package of the European Commission, it could only use half of Opal’s capacity, while the other half remained unused, as there simply were no other interested suppliers.

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Finally, a year ago, the EC exempted Opal from the Third Energy Package until 2033, which gave Gazprom the opportunity to increase its share in its pipes by an additional 30 to 40 percent at the auctions. In this way, Gazprom has gained the opportunity to occupy almost the entire capacity of this pipeline.

This has unsettled Poland, which, through its company PGNIG, filed a request to revoke the expansion of Gazprom’s access to Opal, and due to the Polish lawsuit, the auctions were halted. However, at the end of July, a German court issued a temporary, and now a final ruling dismissing the Polish request.

Interestingly, the Russians say, from an economic point of view, such an outcome is favorable for both Poland and Ukraine.

They explain that the more gas arrives on the German market, the more abundant the surpluses will be that Poland can purchase on the spot market, but physically take at its border with Belarus, leaving the gas it bought on the spot market for German consumers, which arrived in Germany via Nord Stream and, in the future, Nord Stream 2. Warsaw can thus save on transit and double its benefits, say Russian energy market commentators.

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They remind that currently, Russian gas for Germany goes through Belarus and Poland (via the Yamal pipeline), which, in the case of increased capacity of Nord Stream and activation of the full capacity of Opal, is unfavorable for Poland, but also for Ukraine, as they lose transit revenues. Thus, Ukrainian Naftogaz estimates its losses in such a scenario between 290 and 425 million dollars annually.

However, the Russians claim that Ukrainian fears are unfounded, as the demand for Russian gas in Europe is constantly rising, so the Ukrainian route will also need to be strengthened.