Nord Stream 2 Partners Meet in Russia, Affirm Support for Project

Russia's gas giant Gazprom and Europe's Uniper, Engie, Shell, OMV and Wintershall energy companies discussed and affirmed their support for the joint Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, Gazprom said on Tuesday.

ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) — "Participants of the meeting discussed the state of implementation of the Nord Stream 2 project… BASF/Wintershall, Shell, Uniper and Engie companies affirmed their position on promoting the project's implementation," Gazprom said in its statements that followed the meeting on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum, which was attended by Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller.

Austria's OMV oil and gas company, which was represented by its CEO Rainer Seele, also expressed its commitment to helping implement the project to deliver Russian gas to northern Europe.

The Nord Stream-2 project aims to deliver up to 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia to Germany annually via the Baltic Sea. Gazprom has a shareholder agreement to extend the existing Nord Stream with the partner European energy firms.

Gazprom and its partner companies signed a shareholders agreement on Nord Stream 2 in September 2015. The prospective shareholders are Gazprom itself, with 50 percent of shares, Germany's Uniper SE and BASF/Wintershall (10 percent each), Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell (10 percent), OMV AG (10 percent) and France's Engie (10 percent).

In August, the partners withdrew a joint venture request in Poland, a month after Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) objected to its establishment. Germany has approved the creation of the joint venture.