Gas Prices in Europe Up By 11% After German Regulator Suspends Nord Stream 2 AG Certification

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The German energy regulator Bundesnetzagentur on Tuesday suspended the certification of the Nord Stream 2 AG as an independent operator of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

"The Bundesnetzagentur has today suspended the procedure to certify Nord Stream 2 AG as an independent transmission operator. Following a thorough examination of the documentation, the Bundesnetzagentur concluded that it would only be possible to certify an operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline if that operator was organised in a legal form under German law," the regulator said.

The regulator added that the certification process will resume when the parent company will transfer capital and personnel to a German subsidiary.

"The certification procedure will remain suspended until the main assets and human resources have been transferred to the subsidiary and the Bundesnetzagentur is able to check whether the documentation resubmitted by the subsidiary, as the new applicant, is complete. When these requirements have been fulfilled, the Bundesnetzagentur will be able to resume its examination in the remainder of the four-month period set out in law, produce a draft decision and deliver it to the European Commission for an opinion, as provided for in the EU legislation on the internal market," the regulator added.

The Bundesnetzagentur also said that the German Energy Ministry and the European Commission "were informed in advance" about the suspension.

Meanwhile, gas futures prices in Europe increased by 11% on Tuesday after the German energy regulator suspended the certification process of the Nord Stream 2 AG.

The trading of December gas futures on the Dutch TTF index, the key European energy trading hub, reached $1,042,6 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas at 09:45 GMT.