Bundeskartellamt Raises No Competition Concerns over CO₂ Pipeline Projects

The Bundeskartellamt yesterday gave its antitrust approval for two CO₂ pipeline projects that Open Grid Europe (OGE), Germany’s largest gas transmission system operator, plans to implement in cooperation with the East German transmission operator Ontras Gastransport and the Belgian operator Fluxys. Due to the high level of investment involved, OGE had asked the Federal Cartel Office for guidance in case there were any antitrust concerns regarding the two projects.

According to the Cartel Office, the planned CO₂ pipelines are intended to transport captured CO₂ to existing and planned storage sites beneath the North Sea and the Danish mainland.

As part of the cooperation between OGE and ONTRAS, an export pipeline is to be built from a region with emissions-intensive industries to potential export locations. The authority did not specify where in Germany this would be. In the project, the companies are each responsible for a section of the pipeline.

In the cooperation between OGE and Fluxys, OGE plans to construct a pipeline system from western and southern Germany to the German-Belgian border. From there, Fluxys intends to build a CO₂ transit pipeline through Belgium to Zeebrugge.

OGE stated that existing natural gas pipelines cannot be repurposed for transporting CO₂, and that new pipeline construction is therefore necessary. In both projects, the new pipelines will largely follow the existing natural gas routes of the respective transmission system operators.