“We welcome BNetzA’s decision to accept Naftogaz’s petition to intervene in the certification of the Nord Stream 2 operator,” said Naftogaz CEO Yuriy Vitrenko. “We have significant legal and commercial interests in the European gas market and are encouraged by the fact that BNetzA is willing to examine the issue from different angles.”
“Our view remains: the Nord Stream 2 pipeline operator cannot be certified unless it complies with all requirements of EU competition and energy law. There can be no special treatment for Gazprom,” Vitrenko said.
“At the moment, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is endangering Germany’s and Europe’s security of supply. It is anti-competitive, and will not provide necessary additional gas transportation capacity neither to Germany nor to Europe.
More than enough excess transit capacity exists today, but is not being used by Gazprom in its existing contracts with Ukraine’s Gas Transmission System Operator. We see no justifiable commercial purpose for Nord Stream 2,” Vitrenko said.
The certification of NordStream2 AG began on September 8, when its application was accepted by the German Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA). The agency has four months, until January 8, 2022, to reach a draft decision on the NS2AG certification. Thereafter, the European Commission has between two and four months to review the German decision and make its recommendations which BNetzA is obliged to take the utmost account of.