Questions & answers
NORDAL
Why the NORDAL is not an alternative to the OPAL but merely complements it.
There will be two pipelines running between Lubmin and Berlin. Wouldn’t one of the pipelines – the OPAL or the Nordal – be fully sufficient?
The existing pipeline capacities are not sufficient for the enormous quantities of natural gas which will flow through pipelines, including NORD STREAM, into the German and European gas transmission systems in future. Thus, the pipeline network infrastructure has to be expanded. In future over 35 billion cubic meters of gas per year with a maximum operating pressure of 100 bar will be transported via the OPAL (diameter 1.4 meters) to Germany and Europe.
To ensure access to the natural gas imports, it is necessary to establish reliable, end-to-end and efficient transport routes. It is not enough to simply transport some of the gas into the German gas network system without deciding on a commercially and logistically viable system for its onward transport. As such WINGAS GmbH & Co.KG and E.ON Ruhrgas AG prefer the current pipeline option.
