Royal Dutch Shell to Provide Nord Stream 2 Financing Within Weeks - CEO

Royal Dutch Shell will provide funding for the Nord Stream 2 project in coming weeks, the package of credit documents is in its final stages, CEO Ben van Beurden said Friday.

ST PETERSBURG, June 2 (Sputnik) — Speaking to the RBC television channel on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), van Beurden said that the company would not be a shareholder in the Nord Stream 2 project, but would finance it and was cooperating with Russia’s Gazprom.

According to him, Royal Dutch Shell is close to completion of all documents needed for this project, this will happen in the coming weeks.

In April, Nord Stream 2 AG, a venture of Russian's Gazprom energy giant and its European partners, signed a deal with OMV, Engie, Royal Dutch Shell, Uniper and Wintershall where the five firms agreed to provide half of long-term financing, estimated at $10.3 billion. The launch of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which is designed to deliver an estimated 55 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas a year to Germany across the Baltic Sea, bypassing Ukraine, is planned for 2018.

He expressed hope on Friday that the company could someday produce shale oil in Russia.

Van Beurden said that the company had a big shale oil business in North America, and was hoping to one day launch it in Russia.

SPIEF, held in Russia's second largest city of St. Petersburg between Thursday and Saturday, is a major global platform for communication between business representatives and discussion of crucial economic issues. Sputnik news agency is an official media partner of SPIEF.