Gassled Appeal Fails in Supreme Court

Norway's Supreme Court has dismissed June 28 an attempt by four non-state owners of the country's Gassled gas export infrastructure to overturn a 2013 Ministry of Petroleum decision.

That 2013 decision reduced the throughput tariffs which Gassled was permitted to charge.  

The plaintiffs is this latest case were Gassled co-owners CapeOmega, Solveig Gas Norway, Silex Gas Norway, and Infragas Norge - largely owned by pension funds, insurers (including Allianz) and private equity firms which collectively paid tens of billions of dollars to buy their interests from gas production companies prior to 2013. The ministry defended the 2013 decision in court.

The dispute related to that change had sufficient legal authority. The Supreme Court also said there was a further question of the tariff reduction involving an infringement of the property owners' property protection under the European Human Rights Convention (EHRC) Protocol 1, Article 1. But it ruled June 28 that the tariff reduction did not infringe the owners' property protection rights under the EHRC, so said there was no basis for declaring the original 2013 decision as invalid.

The four plaintiffs, which collectively own 48.3% equity in Gassled, already lost a similar appeal in a lower court a year ago.

Solveig Gas Norway, the largest private owner with a 25.55% Gassled stake, said June 28: "We are very disappointed that the Supreme Court has now ruled in favour of the state. We will continue to act a prudent owner in Gassled." It said it would focus on making sure Gassled stays a very efficient, low-cost, high safety transportation system that benefits gas producers and Norwegian society. Solveig is 30%-30%-40% owned respectively by Allianz, Abu Dhabi sovereign fund ADIA, and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

Norwegian state holding Petoro with its 46.697% stake and state-controlled Equinor (Statoil) with 5% jointly exercise majority control over Gassled whose assets -- including 8,300km of subsea gas pipelines, seven receiving terminals in the UK/mainland Europe, and the three large Norwegian gas process and export plants at Kollsnes, Karsto and Nyhamna - are operated by state-owned Gassco.

Neither Petoro nor Equinor took part in this latest court action.