Largest investor leaves Nord Stream 2
Germany's Wintershall Dea no longer plans to provide funding to the Nord Stream 2 project, the company said in a annual report.
"The Group‘s involvement with the Nord Stream 2 project is limited to the provision of loans together with four major European energy companies (ENGIE, OMV, Shell and Uniper). The company‘s loan payments to Nord Stream 2 AG amount to €730 million and were completed prior to the revision of the ‘Countering America‘s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act ‘CAATSA‘ Section 232 Public Guidance‘ of the US Department of State. Further disbursements are not planned," the company said.
The construction of Nord Stream-2 pipeline, which is expected to supply 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year from Russia to Germany and further to other European countries, is estimated to be in the amount of €9.5 billion. The gas pipeline is wholly owned by Russia’s gas giant Gazprom. Its European partners, who provide loans to the operator of the Nord Stream 2 AG project, help finance the construction of the company.
"Wintershall has committed to finance 10% of the project's costs, up to €950 million, and we are adhering to this commitment," the CEO of Wintershall, Mario Mehren, told Russian news agency RBC in April 2019. According to him, at that time the company had already provided about two-thirds of this amount: €600-620 million.
Four European companies, Engie, OMV, Royal Dutch Shell and Uniper, also provide financing for Nord Stream 2 AG. According to the agreement, each company's contribution should also amount to €950 million.
The companies do not disclose how much they have allocated for the construction of the pipeline as part of their obligations. However, the CEO of Wintershall Dea, Mario Mehren, on May 20, 2020 said that the company fully fulfilled its obligations to finance the project. Shell has also already fulfilled all of its obligations, its representative told RBC news agency. In turn, the CFO of Uniper, Sascha Bibert, in May 2020 reported that the company has invested in the project €700 million, TASS wrote.
OMV told RBC that the amount of funding from the company amounted to €729 million, and the total amount was limited to €950 million. "OMV will not provide funds to the Nord Stream 2 project. Details of the financing agreement are confidential," the representative of the company said.
Uniper has fulfilled its obligations as one of the five financial partners of the Nord Stream 2 project and has provided its part of the funding, a Uniper representative told RBC.
"We have fully closed our Nord Stream 2 financing obligations in the second quarter of 2020," a Shell spokesperson told RBC.
While Uniper, Shell and Engie provided the project with approximately €730 million, as well as Wintershall and OMV, the total amount of financing of the pipeline by Gazprom's partners amounted to €3.65 billion, not 4.75 billion, as originally planned.