The Interconnector Pipeline A Key Link in Europe’s Gas Network Mark Futyan Oxford Institute of Energy Studies March 2006 Mark Futyan is a postgraduate student at Columbia Business School in New York. He previously worked for Interconnector (UK) Limited between 2001 and 2005. During this period, he was involved in a variety of engineering and commercial projects. For information or questions on this research, please contact:
[email protected]. Copyright © 2006 Mark Futyan The contents of and views expressed in this paper are the author’s sole responsibility. They do not necessarily represent the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies or any of its members, nor do they represent the views of Interconnector (UK) Limited. ISBN 1-901795-44-6 ii Preface The Interconnector pipeline has rarely been out of the news since it was first proposed in the early 1990s. It is probably not too much of an exaggeration to say that it has transformed short term trading in north west Europe, causing companies to enter into commercial behaviour that they had not previously considered possible or, in some cases, desirable. Equally interesting were predictions (before it was built) that the project was likely to be a waste of time, followed by periodic claims that: gas was flowing in the wrong direction; that larger or smaller volumes of gas should be flowing; and that shippers on one side or the other were responding inappropriately to price signals. For a gas research programme this made the Interconnector a particularly suitable research project which fits perfectly into our work on European gas issues.