Mr Roels said RWE has already initiated approval procedures for connecting RWE’s German and Czech pipeline networks with the appropriate German regional planning officials. “This would significantly improve RWE’s infrastructure for cross-regional gas transport,” he said in a speech.
The projected pipeline is to be operational in the autumn of 2011, and will transport around 5bn cum/yr of gas, which corresponds to nearly 5% of Germany’s total 2005 gas consumption, and to around one-third of RWE’s current gas transmission capacity. The final capacity of the pipeline remains unclear at present: in an open-season process, RWE is inviting other market players to buy pipeline capacity, which they can market independently, and the final capacity of the pipeline will partly depend on the outcome of this process.
RWE has said that the 760-km long gas pipeline’s route will begin in Sayda on the Czech border, cross to Werne in North Rhine-Westphalia, and into the Aachen region, before connecting to the Belgian system. The pipeline will pass Chemnitz, Leipzig, and Cologne before terminating at Eynatten in Belgum. The new pipeline will also enable the supply of additional gas from Russia and the Middle East, RWE points out.
LNG transportation through the pipeline will also be possible, for example from Croatia, where RWE is member of a consortium planning to build an LNG regasification plant, according to a company spokesman. The new pipeline will allow gas from a variety of different sources to be transported to Germany, the UK and the Benelux countries.