The German parliament has amended the Energy Industry Act to implement the European Gas Directive of April that was amended in April 2019. The German lower house is expected to adopt changes by 29 November 2019, in order to have the law entering into force by the end of the year.
The Directive requires gas pipelines not to be owned directly by gas suppliers unless built before 23 May 2019. It also orders to make available to third parties at least 10% of the the gas pipeline capacity. According to the European Commission, this rule applies to all pipelines used to import gas into the European market and is fully compatible with the EU's international obligations. The implementation in Germany of the Directive is expected to rule ownership unbundling, third-party access, charges regulation and transparency.
It may affect the construction of the 55 bcm/year NordStream 2 gas pipeline project developed by Gazprom between Vyborg (Russia) and Greifswald (Germany). In October 2019, Denmark approved the route in its territorial waters, removing the last major hurdle to the project, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2019.
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