Spain’s Enagás to acquire 20% stake in Dutch BBL Company for €‎75M from Germany’s Uniper

Madrid-based Enagás, an energy company, announced on Monday, January 16, that it has agreed to acquire Germany-based Uniper’s 20 per cent stake in Dutch BBL Company for €‎75M, which owns a 235-kilometre gas interconnection linking the UK and the Netherlands.

Enagás’ investment in this purchase is approximately 75 million euros, subject to compliance with the conditions precedent inherent to this type of transaction. 

Post the deal, BBL will be owned 60 per cent by Gasunie, a Dutch energy network operator, while Fluxys and Enagás will own 20 per cent each. 

Upon the acquisition, three Transmission System Operators (TSOs) will own this key infrastructure in Europe’s security of supply, says Enagás in a statement.

The transaction is subject to customary condition precedents and a pre-emption right of the other co-owners of BBL Company.

Enagás says this acquisition is part of a strategic plan to strengthen the security of energy supply in Europe and decarbonisation.

BBL Company is the operator of the BBL Interconnection, a 235-kilometre gas pipeline with an hourly capacity of 20,600,000 kWh/h (Forward Flow, NL -> GB) between Balgzand (the Netherlands) and Bacton (Great Britain) and an hourly capacity of 7,000,000 kWh/h (Reverse Flow, GB -> NL) between Bacton and Balgzand. 

Enagás: What you need to know

Enagás is the technical manager of the Spanish Gas System and the main carrier of natural gas in Spain. 

Certified as an independent TSO by the European Union, the company’s primary mission is to ensure competition and security of the Gas System in Spain. It has 11,000 km of pipelines throughout the Spanish territory, three underground storage facilities located in Serrablo (Huesca), Gaviota (Vizcaya), and Yela (Guadalajara), as well as four regasification plants in Barcelona, Huelva, Cartagena, and Gijón. 

The company owns 40 per cent of the Bilbao regasification plant. The company’s terminals in Spain have 2,646,500 m³ of LNG storage capacity and an output capacity of 6,250,000 Nm ³ / h.