The Spanish natural gas transmission company will pay around €75m to Uniper as consideration for the stake in the North Sea gas pipeline
Spanish TSO Enagás will join the BBL gas interconnector by acquiring Uniper’s 20% stake. (Credit: Moríñigo/Wikimedia Commons)
Enagás has agreed to acquire Uniper’s 20% stake in Dutch BBL, the owner of the 235km long BBL gas interconnector in the North Sea between the UK and the Netherlands.
The Spanish natural gas transmission company will pay around €75m to Uniper as consideration.
The deal will mark the exit of Uniper from the BBL gas interconnector. The sale by the German gas importer is part of the remedies it has to fulfil under the European Union (EU) state aid law.
In September 2022, the German government signed a deal to nationalise Uniper by acquiring a stake of 99% amid the energy crisis in the region.
Uniper stated: “On December 20th 2022 the EU Commission approved the stabilisation package for Uniper under state aid law. As part of the approval, the EU Commission set out a number of structural remedies that Uniper must fulfil.”
Enagás will be joining two other European transmission system operators (TSOs) Gasunie and Fluxys, which hold stakes of 60% and 20%, respectively, in the subsea gas pipeline.
The BBL gas interconnector began operations in 2006. Since July 2019, it has also been physically transporting gas from the UK to the Netherlands.
Its maximum capacity is 15 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year (bcm/y) of direct flow between Balgzand in the Netherlands and the Bacton gas terminal on the Norfolk coast in the East of England. In the reverse direction, the undersea pipeline’s capacity is 5bcm/y.
Enagás said that the deal enables it to advance in its position as a key operator to bolster the energy supply security in Europe.
The deal is contingent on regulatory approvals and the non-exercising of a pre-emption right of the other stakeholders in the BBL gas interconnector.