The Polish state gas company PGNiG has secured its inclusion in the German Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur, BNetzA) certification of Nord Stream 2 AG as an independent Gas Transmission Operator (GTO), PGNiG said in a statement.
“Nord Stream 2 does not comment on ongoing regulatory procedures,” the project operator told Interfax.
Nord Stream 2 AG does not meet the certification requirements for a GTO preferential model, neither in form nor in substance, and “a positive decision of the BNetzA would put at risk the security of supply of the EU and Member States,” the statement said.
“In the certification proceedings, we will also seek to ensure that the owner of Nord Stream 2 cannot avoid the application of ownership unbundling requirements, third party access, and transparent tariffs which take into account the costs of the entire pipeline. We will prove consistently that Nord Stream 2 AG does not meet the formal and substantive requirements for the operator of the pipeline, in particular, those relating to the security of supply and the corporate structure of the company,” PGNiG chief Pawel Majewski was quoted in the statement as saying.
Earlier, PGNiG intervened in the court hearing in Germany, where Nord Stream 2 AG was seeking an exemption from an EU gas directive.
The undersea pipeline with an annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters stretches from the Slavyanskaya compressor station in the Kingisepp district, Leningrad Region to Germany’s Baltic coast. The first phase was completed in early June and the second in September. Earlier, Gazprom said gas flows through the new pipeline would begin in 2021. Potentially, it could supply Europe with 5.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas by the end of the year, the Russian company said.
In early September, BNetzA received the documentation for Nord Stream 2 AG’s GTO certification. Processing the documents and decision-making will take up to four months. After that, the decision must be sent to the European Commission.
