Gazprom鈥檚 Nord Stream 2 loses EU court ruling
(Bloomberg) - Russia鈥檚 controversial聽Nord Stream 2聽pipeline lost the latest round of its legal fight against聽European Union聽gas market rules, in a largely symbolic court defeat for the now-shuttered project.
Gazprom PJSC-controlled Nord Stream 2 should have foreseen that the bloc would use its powers to 鈥渆xtend the internal market rules to cover gas pipelines from third countries,鈥 the General Court said in its re-examination of the case on Wednesday.
Nord Stream 2,聽operated via聽Zug, Switzerland, has been challenging EU legislation from 2019 that includes curbs on natural-gas import infrastructure being run directly by suppliers. In 2020, the EU General Court threw out Nord Stream 2鈥檚 case, but then the bloc鈥檚聽top court told聽the lower chamber to re-examine the decision.
While the ruling is a loss for the owners of the pipeline linking Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea, it鈥檚 unlikely to have any immediate impact on a link that was already blown off course by geopolitics before it was partly destroyed by聽saboteurs聽following the invasion of Ukraine.
Nord Stream 2 filed for bankruptcy soon after Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022. Even though plans for Nord Stream 2 remain in tatters, the pipeline could still eventually be resurrected鈥攚ith American dealmaker and聽Donald Trump聽backer Stephen P. Lynch聽emerging聽as a surprise potential bidder, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The project was slated to double the capacity of the existing undersea route from Russian gas fields to Europe but has been a major source of friction in trans-Atlantic relations for several years.
It was set to carry as much as 55 billion cubic meters of Russian gas per year to Germany and was ready to start full-scale deliveries despite聽U.S.聽sanctions. Approval from the German energy regulator and EU officials were the last hurdles for the project, but Berlin reversed its support following Russia鈥檚 decision to wage war with聽Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin has聽repeatedly聽told Europeans that one string of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany remains intact after explosions destroyed the other conduit in September 2022.
Germany also purchased idled pipes that belonged to the Nord Stream 2 consortium to instead build an LNG hub on site of the pipeline鈥檚 entry in the nation.
Land-based links that were once used to distribute further the gas arriving via Nord Stream, or planned for the Nord Stream 2 use, are now used to聽bring聽gas from Germany鈥檚 new LNG import terminal on the Baltic Sea coast.
In a dramatic turn of events, saboteurs struck in September 2022, damaging both channels of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline as well as one of two for Nord Stream 2 in the waters near the island of Bornholm in eastern Denmark. The blast demonstrated the vulnerability of seabed infrastructure and prompted an increased military presence in the Baltic Sea.
The case is T-526/19 RENV Nord Stream 2 v Parliament and Council.