German court backs Gazprom on pipeline, rejects Polish challenge

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - There is no reason to limit Russian gas exporter Gazprom's access to the Opal gas pipeline, a German court ruled on Friday, rejecting a legal challenge from Polish firms. Last October the EU Commission lifted a cap on Gazprom's use of the Opal pipeline, which carries Russian gas to German and Czech customers. But Polish firms PGNiG and PGNiG Supply & Trading filed a legal challenge to that move, prompting the EU's Luxembourg-based General Court to suspend the Commission's decision in December. In response, Opal cut flows by a third early this year from near maximum capacity. "The plaintiffs have not concretely proven that irreparable disadvantages arise from the capacity allocations (for Gazprom)," the Oberlandesgericht (OLG) Duesseldorf court ruled, its website showed. The OLG, which governs the supervision of Opal by German energy regulator Bundesnetzagentur, said it might issue a wider ruling on Opal in the first half of 2018. A spokeswoman for Opal said the company would issue a response on Friday. This could clarify when and to what extent Opal's volumes will be increased. The Polish challenge was also rejected by the EU's General Court earlier this month. It ruled that a European Commission deal giving Gazprom a bigger share of the Opal gas pipeline could go ahead until a wider ruling expected in 2019. Poland is opposed to Russian plans to double its gas export capacity to Germany via the Nord Stream twin pipeline which crosses the Baltic Sea. The 36 billion cubic metre (bcm) Opal pipeline links to Nord Stream. Gazprom already supplies about a third of Europe's gas. (Reporting by Vera Eckert; editing by Maria Sheahan and Jason Neely)