Project partners
Working together for supply security
Ambitious projects require unusual means. For a gas pipeline project of such magnitude, WINGAS GmbH & Co. KG and E.ON Ruhrgas AG are entering into a co-ownership association, in which WINGAS GmbH & Co. KG will own 80 percent of the OPAL and E.ON Ruhrgas AG 20 percent. OPAL NEL TRANSPORT GmbH and E.ON Ruhrgas Nord Stream Anbindungsleitungsgesellschaft mbH are the network operators and are also responsible for the marketing of capacities. Both companies have tasked WINGAS GmbH & Co. KG with the planning and implementation of the OPAL pipeline construction.
WINGAS. More energy – together
WINGAS GmbH & Co. KG was founded in 1993 as a joint venture of Wintershall Holding AG, Germany’s largest crude oil and natural gas producer, and Russia’s OAO Gazprom, the world’s largest producer of natural gas. The successful joint venture based in Kassel has natural gas trading and sales activities and is also active in natural gas storage. Its customers include municipal utilities, regional gas suppliers, industrial firms and power plants. WINGAS is active in Germany, Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Denmark.
As network operator of the OPAL and the NEL, OPAL NEL TRANSPORT GmbH is the project partner responsible for these gas pipelines. The company is based in Kassel, Hessen, and is part of the WINGAS Group. As well as the natural gas supplier WINGAS, this group includes WINGAS TRANSPORT GmbH & Co. KG, which now operates a high-pressure pipeline network more than 2,000 km long across the whole of Germany including nine compressor stations. The project also aims to connect the gas pipelines planned by OPAL NEL TRANSPORT to the gas pipeline network of WINGAS TRANSPORT GmbH & Co. KG.
E.ON Ruhrgas AG – Shaping the future with energy
In its over 80-year history, E.ON Ruhrgas AG has developed from a regional distributor to an international gas company. It is a member of the E.ON Group – the world’s largest privately owned power and gas company – with overall responsibility for the pan-European gas business. E.ON Ruhrgas is the largest foreign shareholder of OAO Gazprom.
E.ON Ruhrgas Nord Stream Anbindungsleitungsgesellschaft mbH will be responsible for marketing the capacities of the OPAL and the NEL in accordance with the co-ownership share of E.ON Ruhrgas. It is part of the E.ON Ruhrgas subgroup of companies which also includes E.ON Gastransport AG & Co. KG (EGT). The latter has a pipeline system stretching over 11,000 kilometers and is Germany’s leading natural gas transmission company. A connection to the gas pipeline network of EGT via the Nord Stream connecting pipelines, which would enable other neighboring countries to be reached, is also planned.
