Gas Transit Development in Europe and Beyond: In an Era of Geopolitical Influence and Climate Change Pressures

Abstract

With the background of the political and geopolitical factors that determine where energy players can operate plus the complications that the pandemic has brought to operations and the change in energy demand, the article considers how to tackle gas transit development. In addition, it looks the development in light of the impact of the climate change challenge that conventional energy companies and investors are faced with and the resulting diversification needs. Lender reluctance to finance ‘dirty’ energy projects is changing the dynamics for investment. Gas is still promoted by significant industry players and lenders but as governments move towards their clean energy goals, access to funding for any non-renewable projects is looking to become more limited. Many industry players are still of the view that a renewable track cannot be built without a parallel track of gas supply to add to the energy mix. And indeed, the European Green Deal published in December 2019 introduces new ideas for the usage of existing gas infrastructure and there are still largescale cross-border natural gas pipelines under development and construction. The article addresses the steps that are needed to get a pipeline project from drawing board stage to implementation and operations. This is considered from a legal perspective, including looking at the ways in which to raise finance – through debt, equity and other funding sources. A focus of the article is the European Union Funding available to energy projects and how the policy is shaping the energy landscape. The upcoming regulatory changes relating to European Union financing instruments such as the Trans-European Networks for Energy Regulation (the “TEN-E”) which steers investment away from oil and gas pipelines and will offer financing opportunities for other types of smart grids and hydrogen and CO2 pipelines. It has been indicated that oil pipelines and electricity highways are to be removed as infrastructure categories and thematic areas and will no longer be suitable to be financed by the Connecting Europe Facility (“CEF”). Gas transit geopolitical climate change EU-funding