UPDATE: Gazprom partners in Nord Stream-2 in debt financing talks

(Adds details in paragraphs 6, 7)

VIENNA, Jan 24 (PRIME) -- All partners of Russian gas giant Gazprom under a U.S. $9.9 billion Nord Stream-2 natural gas pipeline project are studying the debt mechanism of its financing, Gazprom Deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev told reporters on Tuesday.

“Everyone continues (negotiations on financing),” he said. “You will learn about it when (the financing plan) is finally coordinated…For now, we are talking about debt financing.”

The Nord Stream-2 project envisages construction of two lines of a gas pipeline with an annual capacity of up to 55 billion cubic meters, running from the Russian shore to Germany under the Baltic Sea. Gazprom planned to hold 50% in the project, while E.ON, BASF, Royal Dutch Shell, OMV, and Engie were to own 10% each.

But in 2016 Poland ruled that the European companies had violated antitrust laws by collaborating with Gazprom. The companies said they still supported the project, but the final structure of the Nord Stream-2 is yet to be defined.

Medvedev said that Gazprom is not in talks on possible exploitation of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) for exports of Russian gas. “I have only mentioned (TAP) from the point of view that no pipelines that were built should be left empty…No, we are not in such talks,” he said.

He vowed that Nord Stream-2 was a purely commercial project. “We are implementing the Nord Stream-2 not because we want to deprive Ukraine of payments for transit, we are doing it because we want to supply gas via the shortest and the most efficient route,” he said.

Hopes for a shale revolution repeating in the E.U. after the U.S. did not come true, while the region’s gas consumption is growing. Gazprom is the only company that may sell any amount of gas Europe may need, he said.

Medvedev also said that the company is waiting for the European Commission to respond to its proposals regarding an antimonopoly case against the company, but a meeting with European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager has not been scheduled yet.

The European Commission initiated the antimonopoly investigation against Gazprom in August 2012 and accused it of violating the E.U. competition rules in 2015. According to the authority, Gazprom restricted free supplies to Eastern E.U. countries by splitting gas markets, preventing diversification of supplies and setting unfair prices.

In April 2016, Vestager said that the commission does not rule out an agreement with Gazprom on antimonopoly claims against the company.

End