The European Union Court of Justice (EU Court, Luxemburg based) dismissed Poland's and Polskie Górnictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo (PGNIG)'s request to stop the OPAL pipeline (Ostsee-Pipeline-Anbindungsleitung) deal which gives Gazprom a bigger share in the gas transit through the facility.
In October 2016, the German Federal Network Agency Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA) and the European Commission (EC) approved lifting the cap on the use by Gazprom of the OPAL facility. Gazprom, which had already access to 50% of the pipeline capacity, was then in position to deliver more gas to Europe and to bid for an additional 7.7-10.2 bcm more volumes at auction. At least 10% and as much as 20% of the gas pipeline was expected to be made available to other suppliers and if there was no demand, Gazprom would have been allowed to bid for these volumes.
In the aftermath, PGNIG and the Polish government lodged a complaint and seeked the annulment of the decision because they feared that Gazprom's increased gas transports via OPAL would result in less gas for two other pipelines spread over Poland, thus threatening the Polish domestic gas supply. The EU Court then temporarily suspended the EC decision until the current ruling. The EU Court confirmed the October 2016 decision and reminded that it does not believe that the Polish gas supply is threatened, reminding that Gazprom has a transit contract to use Yamal-Europe until 2020 and a contract to supply PGNiG until the end of 2022.
The 35 bcm/year OPAL gas pipeline is the onshore section of the 55 bcm/year Nord Stream-1 gas pipeline which transports natural gas from Vyborg (Russia) to customers in Western Europe via a 1,200 km-long pipeline in the Baltic Sea. The OPAL facility was brought into service in 2011 and connects the town of Lubmin (Germany) with the town of Brandov (Czech Republic), completely avoiding the Polish territory. Nord Stream-1 is also connected to the 20 bcm/year NEL (Norddeutsche Erdgasleitung) pipeline.
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