Opening the Gazelle natural gas pipeline in the Czech Republic, which connects to Russia‘s Nord Stream, provides a vital energy source for the transportation of natural gas to Western Europe, Germany’s RWE said. Gazelle started working on 14 January. Its capacity is expected to be up to 30 billion cubic metres of gas per a year. “Construction of the Gazelle pipeline is of major strategic importance for both the Czech Republic and for Europe as a whole,” RWE said in a statement.
The 166-kilometre Gazelle connects to the Opal pipeline system in Germany and the Nord Stream dual pipeline system running through the Baltic Sea to Germany. The second string of Nord Stream went into service in October.
Gazelle is part of Russian gas monopoly Gazprom‘s plans to diversify its export options. Konstantin Simonov, the General Director of the National Energy Security Fund in Moscow, told New Europe that the pipeline is very important for decreasing transit risks for Gazprom, especially Ukraine.
For its part, the EU wants to diversify away from Russian gas supplies.
“It’s easier to avoid Ukraine, when you are speaking our supply to Czech Republic, because Gazprom now has an alternative route,” Simonov said. But it will be difficult to increase the supplies of Russian gas to Czech Republic “because it is a very delicate political question for the Czechs,” he said. But it’s possible to have the same amount of our gas export to Czech Republic, he added.
Gazprom is also waiting to see what will be the situation regarding European regulators. Gazprom does not want to give third party access to the OPAL and NEL pipelines. “It’s still a problem for Gazprom because Gazprom does not want to see any independent gas producers in its pipeline,” Simonov said.
OPAL starts from the maritime Nord Stream‘s landfall point, at Lubmin, runs southward to the German-Czech border, enters into Czech territory, and turns westward into Germany again.
NEL runs also from Lubmin, westward to Hamburg and toward the border with the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said construction of the third and fourth Nord Stream pipes is economically feasible. But he noted that the project may be undertaken by another company, and not by Nord Stream AG that built the first two pipelines through the Baltic Sea.
Also, BP is keen to extend the Nord Stream gas pipeline to Britain, Miller said.
Simonov told New Europe that Gazprom is suggesting building the third and four pipes across the Baltic Sea from Russia to Britain “to show the European Union it is possible to enlarge gas infrastructure. But, of course, there is no need to build four pipes of Nord Stream, as there is no need to build four pipes of South Stream.”
“We have now Nord Stream – two pipes – and then the OPAL pipeline, which really is the prolongation of Nord Stream to Eastern Europe, and NEL, which is a prolongation of Nord Stream to West Germany and Holland,” he said. Simonov suggested building a pipeline from Austrian gas hub Baumgarten to Great Britain as a prolongation of the first two Nord Stream pipelines through the Baltic Sea.
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