Clifford Chance has advised the transmission system operator ONTRAS Gastransport GmbH on its acquisition of a 16.5 percent fractional ownership in the EUGAL pipeline project. The vendor is GASCADE Gastransport GmbH, which has had sole responsibility for the project to this point. Two further transmission system operators, Fluxys Deutschland GmbH and Gasunie Deutschland Transport Services GmbH, also each acquired a 16.5 percent fractual ownership at the same time.

GASCADE Gastransport GmbH will retain a 50.5 percent stake and will continue to act as the project manager in terms of all construction and operational aspects.

The European Gas Pipeline Link (EUGAL) will extend over a distance of 485 kilometres from the Baltic Sea, through north-east Germany and into the Czech Republic, providing an annual transport capacity of 51 billion cubic metres. The first EUGAL string is due for completion at the end of 2019.

ONTRAS is a national transmission system operator based in Leipzig and forming part of the European gas transport system. The company operates Germany's second-longest gas pipeline network comprising around 7,000 kilometres of pipeline.

The Clifford Chance team comprised partners Dr. Björn Heinlein (Energy and Infrastructure) and Dr. Christoph Holstein (Corporate/M&A), senior associate Steffen Knepper (Corporate/M&A/Energy and Infrastructure), partner Dr. Joachim Schütze and senior associate Dr. Florian Wiesner (both Antitrust) - all Düsseldorf - as well as counsel Steffen Amelung and associate Dominik Janson (both Public Procurement, Frankfurt).