Still uncertainty about construction of Nord Stream 2

After more than a year's break due to the imposition of US sanctions, the construction of Nord Stream 2 has resumed and is being carried out by the Russians at their own expense.

"European concerns that are financially involved in Nord Stream 2, i.e. five large companies that provided half of the initial financing for this project in the form of very favorable interest-bearing loans, have now decided to discontinue this financing. They have already transferred most of the funds, but the last tranches have been suspended," Mateusz Kubiak, energy markets expert at Esperis Consulting, said.

At the beginning of March, the German company Uniper informed about the suspension of financing for Nord Stream 2, whose contribution to the investment was supposed to reach approx. €700 million. Earlier, OMV, Shell, and Wintershall had made a similar decision.

"It does not seem, however, that Nord Stream 2 will be left without money. This project is treated as an absolute priority by the Russian side and it fills any gaps that appear in the budget. The delays and the need to circumvent US sanctions generate additional costs but do not affect the future of Nord Stream 2. This project will continue to be implemented as much as possible,” the expert emphasized.

There are two areas in which the future of Nord Stream 2 remains uncertain. The first is the matter of certification of the gas pipeline and putting it into service, approving its compliance with the technical design. Such services are currently subject to US sanctions, so today we do not know if or how the Russians would try to secure these certifications for themselves. The second questionable and still unresolved issue is the compliance of Nord Stream 2 with EU regulations and the amended gas directive. According to it, part of the gas pipeline's capacity must be made available to third parties from the EU, and the Russian energy company Gazprom will not be able to, inter alia, manage the gas pipeline himself, which also supplies the gas. 

(Newseria)