UPDATE 1-RWE Transgas Net plans new Czech gas link

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RWE Transgas Net, a Czech unit of German energy company RWE , is considering a new gas pipeline linking two points at the German border through the Czech Republic, the parent company said on Monday.

An RWE spokesman said the company had set aside 530 million euros ($715.9 million) for the project, which is meant to expand capacity serving the German market.

Czech daily Hospodarske Noviny said the new link would connect existing pipelines at the northern Czech border crossing at Hora Svate Kateriny with another pipeline at Waidhaus on the German side of a crossing in south-western Czech Republic.

It would become of a network transporting Russian gas brought through the Nord Stream pipeline, which is being built from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea.

Within the Czech Republic, RWE Transgas Net transports Russian gas from the Slovak border in the east through a pipeline that forks into two branches going to Germany at Hora Svate Kateriny and Waidhaus.

(Additional reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff)

[PRAGUE/Reuters/Finance.cz]