Wingas, the German gas importer and distributor, on Wednesday
announced it had completed the extension of the Stegal
natural gas pipeline that runs from Saxony, on Germany’s
eastern border, to the central federal state of
Thuringia.
The announcement followed 20 months of construction work by
Wingas, a joint venture of Wintershall AG and Russia’s
Gazprom. The EUR 200 million project expands the capacity of
the important east-west transport route by more than 50% to
around six billion cubic metres (Gm3) of natural gas per
year.
Thuringia’s Minister for Trade and Commerce, Jürgen Reinholz,
praised the project as a “long-term contribution to securing
Germany’s energy supply.”
“This project has played its part in significantly enhancing
the security of gas supply to German and European markets,
because the expansion of the Stegal pipeline will enable the
company to transport significantly larger volumes of Russian
natural gas over the pipeline through Saxony and Thuringia to
England, Belgium and France,” Rainer Seele, chairman of
Wingas, said in a statement.
In order to safeguard supply, Wingas secured an increase in
its supply contracts with Russia’s Gazexport in 2004. The
German transporter and distributor operates a traffic
light-based entry/exit system on its pipeline network, making
all unused capacity available to third parties. A spokesman
for Wingas was unable to give details on exactly what volume
of capacity had been used by third parties
historically.
Wingas is also involved in a EUR 50 million expansion project
of the Wedal pipeline, which runs through North
Rhine-Westphalia, a densely populated federal state in
western Germany, which accounts for around 25% of German gas
consumption. The Wedal project aims to increase the capacity
of the link by 30%. Wingas would not provide outright
capacity figures for the pipeline. The entire expansion is
expected to be completed in 2007.
“For decades Gazprom has been a reliable partner in providing
Germany and Western Europe with a secure supply of natural
gas. In all these years Gazprom has always reliably fulfilled
its obligations to Europe,” Seele continued, in a possible
attempt at diffusing the current controversy over Gazprom’s
drive into downstream European markets.
In January, Gazprom cut supplies to the European marketplace
after a severe cold weather front forced a curb on gas
exports (see ESGM 12.012).
Last month, Gazprom signed a deal with Germany’s BASF, the
parent company of Wintershall, under which the Russian giant
would hold a 50% minus-one-share stake in Wingas, up from its
previous stake of 35%. In return, Wintershall agreed to take
35% of the profits from Gazprom’s, as yet undeveloped, Yuzhno
Russkoye field (see ESGM 12.085).
Wingas is the second biggest gas sales company in Germany
after E.ON Ruhrgas, with volumes of 15 Gm3 in 2005. Wingas
also owns Rehden, the largest natural gas storage facility in
Western Europe.
