Nord Stream Inauguration to Take Place on Tuesday

Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will meet next Tuesday, November 8, to inaugurate the Nord Stream Pipeline in Lubmin in Germany. They will be joined in the inauguration ceremony by French Prime Minister François Fillon and the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger.

The speakers chosen for the inauguration are commemorative of the nationalities of the companies involved. The Nord Stream Project is operated by companies from Germany, France, the Netherlands and Russia, including  OAO Gazprom (Russia), Wintershall Holding GmbH (a BASF subsidiary) (Germany), E.ON Ruhrgas AG (Germany), N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie (Netherlands) and GDF SUEZ (France). Gazprom holds the largest stake in the pipeline at 51 percent. The five companies are paying €7.4 billion of the cost at 30 percent, with the remaining 70 percent coming from commercial loans.

The Nord Stream Pipeline is being delivered on schedule.

Around 420 guests, including political and business leaders, will attend the ceremony to celebrate the first flow of gas through the pipeline and its entry into the European gas grid.

The inauguration ceremony will mark the opening of the Nord Stream Pipeline through the Baltic Sea, over a distance of twin 1,224 kilometre gas pipelines. The pipeline is expected to operate at full capacity by late 2012.