Gazprom's 'Partners' Reaffirm Nord Stream 2 Vows

Gazprom senior management has met with senior executives of a number of western European gas companies over the course of this week's international gas forum, where they repeated their intention to facilitate the Nord Stream 2 gas line. BASF/Wintershall board member Hans-Ulrich Engel, Engie board chairman Gerard Mestrallet, and Uniper CEO Klaus Schafer, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden and OMV CEO Rainer Seele met Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller in St Petersburg to discuss continuing co-operation, including facilitating Nord Stream 2.

The CEO of Dutch pipeline operator Gasunie, a partner in Nord Stream 1, Han Fennema, also met Miller, to discuss the importance of new pipelines to Europe. So far this year the pipeline has carried 32bn m³, up 13% on Jan1-Oct 3 last year. At full capacity the line can carry 55bn m³, but there remain regulatory blockages in Europe where the European Commission is yet to approve full access to the Opal line, carrying gas down from Germany's coast to the Czech republic.

Nord Stream 1 arrives in Germany (Credit: Nord Stream AG)

In September, Opal operator told NGW: "the deadline for the decision of the EC regarding the settlement agreement was extended by the European Commission by additional two months in August. Hopefully there will be a final decision within the next weeks." The EC told NGW September 27 that it was assessing its decision and there would be a decision in "due course."

In a news vacuum, the five companies' intentions to support the project will provide Gazprom – the sole shareholder – with some comfort, although there is a difficulty over their involvement in a project whose rationale was a steady stream of income from transit fees, paid by Gazprom, owner of 50% of the equity and 100% of the capacity. Since the Polish competition agency ruled against the creation of a six-way joint venture, none of the companies has come up with an alternative arrangement for financing the line which was to have been mostly debt-financed. 

Nord Stream 2 appointed former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder as chairman of the board of Nord Stream 2, relinquishing his position as chairman of the shareholders' committee of Nord Stream AG, operator of the first line.

William Powell