Wintershall, Gazprom mulling how to revive process of unblocking OPAL capacity
PARIS. June 3 (Interfax) - German oil and gas company Wintershall and Russia's Gazprom are thinking about how to revive the process of unblocking the capacity of the OPAL gas pipeline, the onshore branch of the Nord Stream offshore pipeline from Russia to Germany.
New requests have not been submitted to regulators to lift the provision on using the capacity, Wintershall Holding GmbH CEO Mario Mehren told reporters in Paris.
The companies are thinking about how to get this process moving and are trying to talk to participants in this process, Mehren said, adding that they are working daily to get things moving.
However, the whole situation with Ukraine is not conducive to making a decision on OPAL, he said. Only 62% of OPAL's annual capacity of 36 billion cubic meters is currently used.
Back in 2009, European regulators stipulated that if Gazprom or its trading joint venture Wingas reserve more than 50% of capacity at the border with the Czech Republic, a gas release (auction to resell gas transported along the pipeline) of 3 bcm per year (10% of the pipeline's capacity) would be required. This would have essentially meant Gazprom conceding half of its share of the Czech market. Gazprom refused the gas release, so it was partially barred from using OPAL. But the Russian gas giant has de facto already lost the whole Czech market, as at the beginning of last year Gazprom and RWE agreed to temporarily suspend shipments on their contract.
