Gazprom gets access to 80% of OPAL pipeline, builds Nord Stream 2

In accordance with the decision of the European Commission the Russian gas group Gazprom gets access to 80% of the Germany’s OPAL pipeline. Observers think if Gazprom can carry more natural gas, using the OPAL pipeline, this will allow the Russia’s state-run monopoly to decrease amounts of gas carried through the Yamal pipeline running across Poland and Byelorussia. The OPAL pipeline has a capacity to carry 25.6 billion cubic meters of gas.

In addition, the consortium, which is responsible for the implementation of the project of laying the Nord Stream 2 pipeline on the Baltic seabed, plans to apply to Finnish, Danish and German regulators for permission to build the pipeline. After the third and fourth lines of Nord Stream 2 are put into operation, Gazprom will shut off the Ukrainian gas transportation network from the transit system.

Incidentally, the Czech Republic is currently importing Russian natural gas, in the main, from Nord Stream 1 via Gazela and OPAL pipelines.

Readers of The Ukrainian Times know that Gazprom controls 15% of the world’s known natural-gas reserves. The Russian group is going to be passing along gas for a long, long time. Like a coiled spring, Gazprom stocks are cheap to start with. Not having any idea of what would happen, some investors think the cheap bird in their hand is a better bet than the expensive birds somewhere in the future bush.