BRUSSELS, October 31 (RIA Novosti) — Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that another delay in a European Commission’s (EC) decision on granting Russian energy giant Gazprom full access to the Opal pipeline was a political move.
“In our opinion this was a political decision, because all the agreements have been reached a year ago. We think that this does not bring positive moments in all the story with Opal, because all the delays are justified by technical moments, but nobody gives us specific requests on which technical moments need to be addressed,” Novak told journalists in Brussels.
“This is why we think of it as of a simple political moment, political story, which does not benefit European consumers – the pipeline stands, it is not running at full capacity,” Novak explained.
The deadline for the decision on Opal had earlier been set for September, but was subsequently postponed to October, as the EC argued that further technical aspects needed to be assessed.
The Opal pipeline connects the Nord Stream pipeline with Europe’s gas transportation network. It runs Russian natural gas across Germany to the Czech Republic. Gazprom was unable to run Nord Stream at full capacity because of European restrictions. Under the terms of the EU’s Third Energy Package, Gazprom can only use 50 percent of the pipeline, and reserve the other half for transportation by independent gas suppliers.
Gazprom previously asked the European Commission to exclude Opal from the Third Energy Package rules, and Germany supported the move, fearing that Russian gas deliveries to Europe via Ukraine may be interrupted. The 470-kilometer-long pipeline (290 miles) may transport up to 35 billion cubic meters of gas per year, making it almost a third of Germany’s natural gas requirements.
