The GAZELLE gas pipeline was officially commissioned today in Primda, Czech Republic. Bringing this pipeline into service opens up the “new northern route” for the transportation of natural gas to western Europe. Construction of the GAZELLE pipeline is of major strategic importance for both the Czech Republic and for Europe as a whole.

This was reflected by the guests of honour at the event, who performed the official commissioning ceremony: Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas, Anne Ruth Herkes, State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of the Economy and Technologies Federal Republic of Germany and Anatolij Borisovitch Janovskij, State Secretary at the Ministry for Energetics of the Russian Federation, together with the CEO of RWE AG, Peter Terium, and the CEO of NET4GAS, Thomas Kleefuss.

The GAZELLE pipeline is a further step in the diversification of gas sources and ensuring a greater security of supply for the Czech Republic and the EU as a whole. In Brandov, northern Bohemia, it connects with the NORD STREAM (Baltic) and the OPAL pipelines (German territory); it is also connected with the MEGAL long-distance gas network, which supplies southern Germany and France, at the Rozvadov-Waidhaus border station by way of the Primda distribution hub. The pipeline is connected with the Czech Republic’s existing long-distance gas network at Brandov, Jirkov, Svinomazy and Primda. Construction of the new 166-km pipeline began in October 2010 when the foundation stone for the Brandov station was laid. The pipeline has a lengths of 166 km. It is a purely private investment project by NET4GAS, costing CZK 10 billion.