ENTSOG South-North Corridor GRIP 2017 - Main Report

8.1.1.2 Milestones

BeLux market integration, a first in Europe On 1st October 2015, Fluxys Belgium and Creos Luxembourg successfully launched the first ever gas market integration between two European Union Member States, namely Luxembourg and Belgium. This market integration is fully in line with the European Union’s blueprint that aims at building an internal gas market without borders, where gas can flow freely from one country to another. The successful merging of the Luxembourg and Belgian gas markets is the result of around two years of close collaboration between Creos Luxembourg, Fluxys Belgium and their respective regulators, the Luxembourg Regulatory Authority (ILR) and Belgium’s Regulatory Commission for Electricity and Gas (CREG). The merging of the markets opens up more opportunities for competition for the two countries and boosts security of supply for Luxembourg. The integrated market is beneficial for suppliers too, as there is now only one balancing zone for the two countries and liquidity on the ZTP gas trading point is boosted. With the removal of the Bras/Pétange interconnection point from the commercial offer, grid users no longer have to reserve capacity at that point to transmit gas between Belgium and Luxembourg. Alveringem-Maldegem, the Dunkirk–Zeebrugge link In parallel with the construction of the LNG terminal at Dunkirk, a pipeline has been laid to link this new installation to the Zeebrugge area. The pipeline connects three infrastructures: the Dunkirk LNG terminal as a new gas entry point for Europe, the grid of French system operator GRTgaz and the Fluxys grid in Belgium. GRTgaz has laid a 26-km long pipeline from the compressor station in Pitgam to the French-Bel- gian border. Fluxys Belgium has built a new interconnection point in Alveringem near Veurne, and a 72-km long pipeline between Alveringem and Maldegem. The new installations of the two system operators were commissioned in late 2015. This combination allows the transport of up to an additional 8bcm of natural gas to Belgium and elsewhere in Europe from the Dunkirk LNG terminal, strengthening se- curity of supply, market integration and diversification of sources while offering a wider basis for natural gas trading in the North-West Region. The project gives sys- tem users maximum flexibility in choosing the destination for their natural gas flows, as by using the Belgian system they can move their gas flows to a wide range of des- tinations. Besides, it renders the Belgian grid completely bidirectional.

Image courtesy of Fluxys

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South-North Corridor GRIP 2017