Gassled owners lose lawsuit in Norway over gas-pipeline tariffs

By JONAS CHO WALSGARD
Bloomberg

Norway’s government beat back a lawsuit from companies controlled by Allianz and Abu Dhabi, among others, seeking to reverse cuts in tariffs on the Gassled pipeline network they claim will cost them about $1.8 billion.

There was no reason to assume that the state had agreed at the time that Gassled was established to keep tariffs unchanged until the end of the 2028 license period, the Oslo District Court said in its ruling. It ruled that the parties will pay their own court costs because the government also bears blame for the legal dispute occurring.

Investors in Gassled, whose owners also include Canadian pension funds and a UBS-controlled infrastructure fund, sued Norway to stop the 90% cut set to take effect in late 2016 that they claim will reduce total income by about 34 billion kroner.

Together in 2011 and 2012, they paid about 32 billion kroner ($3.7 billion) for a 44% stake in the pipelines of western Europe’s biggest gas producer. They argued that the cuts violate Norwegian law, its constitution and European private property conventions.

Considering Appeal

They now have six weeks to appeal the decision.

“We’re going to consider carefully over the next six weeks what we’re gonna do,” said Trygve Pedersen, CEO of Solveig Gas Norway, one of the plaintiffs. Solveig, which owns 24.8% of Gassled, is controlled by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Allianz Capital Partners.

The government argued that it’s free to change tariffs to promote “good resource management” and the definition of that is “naturally at the discretion of the government.”

The ministry is “satisfied” with the ruling, Ole Berthelsen, a spokesman for the Petroleum and Energy Ministry, said in a statement.

Allianz last year in a letter to Prime Minister Erna Solberg said the cuts led to “significant” losses and writedowns on its 6.1 billion-krone investment. The insurer said that the move damaged trust in Norway, potentially harmed infrastructure investments in general and hurt German and Norwegian citizens. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the country’s largest pension-fund manager, also said that it was “seriously recalibrating” its view of Norway after the reductions.

Infragas Norge, Njord Gas Infrastructure Holding, Silex Gas Norway and Solveigwere the official plaintiffs in the suit against Norway’s Petroleum and Energy Ministry. They bought their stakes from oil companies such as Statoil, Total and Royal Dutch Shell.

“Njord will make announcement when this decision has been made,” the company said in a statement, referring to whether it will appeal. Njord is owned by UBS International Infrastructure Fund and CDC Infrastructure.

The largest shareholder in Gassled, state-owned Petoro, wasn’t part of the suit. The second-biggest owner is Solveig Gas.

Gassled, the formal owner of the Norwegian gas transport infrastructure, supplies about 20% of Europe’s gas demand through links to the UK, France, Belgium and Germany.

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