Gazprom faced a real risk of spreading to the “North stream-2” rules of the Third energy package, which in the future may prevent the company to fully utilize the capacity of the pipeline. According to the German newspaper Handelsblatt, the Federal network Agency of Germany intends to refuse the Russian project about non-proliferation in it of norms of the European regulation, because the project will not be completed by the end of may. The German regulator did not agree with the argument of “Gazprom” that the project investments were made prior to the adoption of new European legislation.The Federal network Agency of Germany (BNA) previously rejected the application of Nord Stream AG 2 about the release of the project “Northern stream-2” from the requirements of the EU gas Directive. However, the decision has not been made, the regulator until may 8, continues to gather comments from stakeholders before making operational the decision, announced on 1 may, the newspaper Handelsblatt, citing a draft decision of the Department.In mid-January, BNA received applications from the operators of Nord Stream 1 Nord Stream AG, 2 AG, claiming the liberation of the gas pipeline “Nord stream” and “Nord stream-2” from the requirements of the EU gas Directive. The latest amendments to this Directive require coming to the EU offshore pipelines to meet the requirements of division activities for the supply and transportation of gas and access by third parties. 2 Nord Stream AG is 100% owned by Gazprom, so the requirements of the gas Directive can lead to the fact that the pipeline can be downloaded only half.If the project were built before the deadline, it could avoid the requirements of the Directive. Nord Stream 2, in turn, insisted that the decision on the non-proliferation requirements should come not from “construction technical” sense of the requirements, and given the fact that at the time of entry into force of the new directives the domestic gas market have already been made billions of investments. In BNA did not agree, writes Handelsblatt, finding that in deciding should be based on “construction technical” understanding of the term “project completion”, not the “economic-functional”.The fact that the German Parliament at the end of 2019 urgently passed a law otdihali to the “Nord stream-2” the commissioning of the project until may 24, 2020. At that time it seemed that it will allow “Gazprom” to comfortably complete the construction, but this was followed by US sanctions against companies that provide services for laying of the pipeline. The Swiss Allseas pipelaying had to abandon the laying of the last — 160 km section of the pipeline. Now presumably for the completion of these works on the Baltic sea is the ship “Akademik Chersky”, but it is clear that by may 24 to complete the pipeline it will not have time.In the statement the Nord Stream project 2 AG has already stated that they are familiar with the preliminary decision of the regulator not agree with him and intend to protect your rights. According to Handelsblatt, Nord Stream AG 2 may appeal against the regulator’s decision to the Higher regional court of düsseldorf.Tatiana Woodpecker
