June 18, 2015
Vestifinance.ru
Translated by Kristina Rus
Gazprom and the European companies have agreed to expand the capacity of "Nord stream". The construction of the third and fourth strings of the pipeline will be undertaken by Gazprom, E. On, Shell and OMV, said the official representative of "Gazprom," Sergey Kupriyanov.
It is possible that the new project may be joined by others, but the end destination of the pipeline will be Germany.
OMV now receives gas through Ukraine via Uzhgorod corridor, but the company realized that the transit of gas through Ukraine will end by 2019. This is why OMV urgently asked to be included in a new project.
The ratio of shares of shareholders in the project will remain approximately the same as in the project "North stream-1". The new pipeline capacity will be 55 billion cubic meters a year, said "Gazprom".
Memoranda on expansion of the gas transport system "Nord stream" was signed on Thursday at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2015). The document was signed by the head of "Gazprom" Alexey Miller, member of the board of E. ON SE, Klaus Schäfer, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, Ben Van Bearden and a member of the board of OMV AG, Manfred Leitner.
The memorandum is not an agreement, but a statement of intent. However, in this case the memorandum was executed as a detailed agreement, and the parties would not sign the memorandum in the absence of a prior agreement.
In the near future the parties will establish a joint company for the implementation of a new project that speaks about a likely signing of the basic agreement.
Experts unanimously agree that the Anglo-Dutch Shell, adopted a new strategic decision and entered a new project of "Gazprom" despite Western sanctions against Russia.
Thus, Shell, E. On and OMV recognized that Europe cannot survive without Russian gas, and U.S. statements on the supply of American natural gas to Europe are nothing more than a bluff.
The gas pipeline Nord Stream ("North stream") 1224 km long connects the Russian Vyborg and German Greifswald through the Baltic sea. The output of the two threads of the pipeline is 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year.
The shareholders of Nord Stream - pipeline operators - are Gazprom (51%), German Wintershall Holding GmbH (a division of BASF) and E. ON Ruhrgas AG (a division of E. ON group) at 15.5% each, the Dutch N. V. Nederlandse Gasunie and French GDF Suez (9% each).