Fluxys to join planned North European Gas Pipeline

Fluxys, the operator of the natural gas transmission and storage infrastructure in Belgium, has entered into a term sheet to acquire from WINGAS, 19% stake in the North European Gas Pipeline NEL.

The NEL link is one of the two pipelines planned in Germany for accommodating downstream flows from the Nord Stream pipeline, which is going to bring additional volumes of Russian natural gas through the Baltic Sea to Europe.

The pipeline will run from where the Nord Stream landfall point in Lubmin near Greifswald to Rehden in Lower Saxony, stretching over 440 kilometers past Schwerin and Hamburg. It will connect Nord Stream with the European gas network, just as the OPAL natural gas pipeline does to the Czech Republic. Natural gas from the major reserves in Russia can thus be transported directly to Germany and other Member States of the European Union, in particular to Belgium, the Netherlands, France and the UK.

Subject to obtaining all approvals required, the agreement between Fluxys and WINGAS will lead to a NEL ownership of WINGAS 51%, Gasunie 20%, Fluxys 19% and E.ON Ruhrgas 10%.

WINGAS GmbH & Co. KG is a joint venture of BASF SE/Wintershall Holding GmbH and Russia's OAO Gazprom. It supplies natural gas to public utilities, regional gas suppliers, industrial facilities and power plants in Germany and other European countries via the pipeline network, which extends to over 2,100 kilometers, as well as other networks.

BASF SE/Wintershall Holding Gmbh, Gazprom , Gasunie and E.ON Ruhrgas are shareholders of the Nord Stream pipeline project.