Gas transport

You may have wondered how the gas you use in your home gets there. Up to the point where your local distribution company takes it over, the gas is transported through our pipelines. Our network for gas transport in the Netherlands and the northern parts of Germany connects energy suppliers and consumers. We transport nearly a quarter of all gas consumed in the European Union.

Management and development of the gas transport network

Gasunie has two subsidiaries that manage the gas transport network: Gasunie Deutschland in Germany and Gasunie Transport Services (GTS) in the Netherlands. Their responsibilities include:

  • monitoring a safe and reliable transport system;
  • operating and developing the gas transport network;
  • providing sufficient transport capacity;
  • maintaining the connection with other networks, both national and international;
  • assuring the constant supply of gas for temperatures down to as low as -17°C;
  • managing gas quality;
  • balancing the network to ensure that neither too much nor too little gas is being transported.

Gas transport projects abroad

We collaborate in the operation of major pipelines outside of the Netherlands and northern Germany. For example, we are shareholders in:

  • BBL: a 230km pipeline underneath the North Sea through which gas is transported between Balgzand in the Netherlands and Bacton in the UK;
  • NEL: this pipeline connects the Nord Stream pipeline from the coast of northern Germany to gas networks at the slightly more southerly German locations of Heidenau and Achim.
  • EUGAL: a 480-kilometre pipeline running from the Baltic Sea, through Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Brandenburg to South Saxony and from there across the border to the Czech Republic. The first section was completed at the end of 2019.

Gate terminal for global LNG transport

Natural gas is easier to transport over long distances in its liquefied state (LNG) than in its gaseous state. Liquefied natural gas can be transported to the Netherlands from all over the globe. Together with Royal Vopak, we own Gate terminal in the Port of Rotterdam, where LNG can be stored and converted back to its gaseous state for transport in our gas network. It can also be transported by ship or tanker truck to other countries in north-western Europe, or used directly in its liquefied state to fuel ships and trucks.