EU Commission Takes UK, Ireland to Court Over Gas Pipes

The European Commission said today that Ireland and the United Kingdom are not fully in line with EU gas market rules and has decided to refer these countries to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

“The maximum interconnection capacity is not offered in the UK and Ireland as the pipeline connecting Northern Ireland and Ireland is not open to the market. This means that gas companies in Ireland cannot directly trade gas with Northern Ireland or vice versa.“, the Commission said in a statement.

On the pipeline connecting Scotland to Northern Ireland short-term services are not available and neither is virtual reverse flow capacity based on netting off physical forward flow to make capacity available for commercial trade as required by EU longstanding legislation.

The Commission said it is aware that the UK and Irish governments intend to introduce Common Arrangements for Gas (CAG) between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

“While the Commission welcomes such steps to create cross-border market, this project has already been delayed. Therefore the Commission has decided to proceed with these infringement procedures in accordance with the EU law.”, the Commision added.

[mappress]

LNG World News Staff, January 26, 2012