The OPAL pipeline: controversies about the rules for its use and the question of supply security. OSW Commentary NUMBER 229 | 17.01.2017

Loskot-Strachota, Agata (2017) The OPAL pipeline: controversies about the rules for its use and the question of supply security. OSW Commentary NUMBER 229 | 17.01.2017. [Policy Paper]

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Abstract

The record volumes of gas supplied via the OPAL and Nord Stream pipeline in recent weeks have been accompanied by controversy over the rules for utilisation of the OPAL pipeline’s capacity. There has long been uncertainty as to the actual content of the decision taken by the European Commission at the end of October 2016, the full text of which was published on 9 January 2017. Both the clash of interests between companies and states about how to use the gas pipeline, and the different interpretations of the impact of Gazprom’s increased utilisation of OPAL due to the new EC regulations on the situation on the gas markets in the EU, including in Central Europe and Poland, have been revealed. Uncertainty concerning the principles of the pipeline’s use has also been increased by Poland’s formal challenge of the EC’s decision.

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