OREANDA-NEWS. The verdict of the European Court of Justice, which canceled Gazprom’s right to fully utilize the capacities of the OPAL gas pipeline, prevented interruptions in gas supplies to Poland. This was announced on Thursday by the head of the Polish energy company PGNiG Petr Wozniak during the All-Polish Economic Summit in Siedlce.

"If the OPAL decision was made in 2021, this would entail a tragic interruption in the supply of gas in its consequences, which our transmission network of gas and customers cannot afford", he said. According to Wozniak, if the European court had not decided to limit the transfer of Russian gas via OPAL, "according to Gazprom, we would not have had enough gas in southeastern Poland".

According to him, if OPAL could not be “stopped”, increased volumes of gas would flow through the Nord Stream-1 gas pipeline. "He was able to stop him, therefore, these missing volumes of gas, to which Gazprom should reduce transmission via OPAL, will be sent through Ukraine, that is, partially through the point in Drozdovichi it should go to Poland", Wozniak said.

In early September, the European Court of Justice in a Polish lawsuit annulled the 2016 European Commission decision, according to which Gazprom could use OPAL capacities to 100%, that is, 36 billion cubic meters per year. Now the Russian holding can use only 50% of the pipeline’s capacity. On Monday, he cut OPAL shipments and began to increase gas transit to Europe through Ukraine.

OPAL is a branch pipe connecting Nord Stream with the gas transmission system of Central and Western Europe. Gas enters Germany to the border with the Czech Republic. The corporation said that they are studying the legal and economic consequences of the decision. At the same time, in 2017, the company asked to be involved in the proceedings as an interested party, but this didn't happen.