UPDATE: OMV CEO sees Russia Nord Stream-2 shareholder deal closed by Sep

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ST. PETERSBURG, Apr 1 (PRIME) -- The participants of Russia’s Nord Stream-2 pipeline project will close the shareholder agreement and purchase their stakes in the pipeline operator until September, CEO of future shareholder OMV Rainer Seele told reporters on Friday.

“We expect the purchase during the summer. I would like to work on Nord Stream-2,” Seele said.

The Nord Stream-2 project envisages construction of two lines of a gas pipeline with a capacity of up to 55 billion cubic meters of gas annually, running from the Russian shore to Germany under the Baltic Sea. Russian gas giant Gazprom will hold 50% in the project, while E.ON, BASF, Royal Dutch Shell, and OMV will own 10% each, and Engie will get a 9% stake.

Several E.U. countries sent a letter to the European Commission, protesting against the Russian pipeline in March. These states deem Nord Stream-2 a political initiative which could harm Ukraine, which is going to lose the gas transit volumes and the E.U. market in the long run.

The closing of the deals to distribute Nord Stream-2 stakes among the shareholders which signed the agreement earlier will depend on a decision by E.U. antitrust authorities, CEO of Gazprom Alexei Miller said. The agreements are being considered by the E.U. and German antitrusts.

Miller said that higher demand for Russian gas in Europe confirms economic viability of Nord Stream-2. He also said that Gazprom and OMV have no doubt that the pipeline will be launched till 2020.

“We have mentioned that the project is being fulfilled in accordance with the schedule approved by the shareholders in the very beginning. We have no doubt that the project will be finished till the end of 2019,” Miller said.

Lawyers of Gazprom and the Nord Stream-2 project’s operator concluded that the underwater part of the pipeline does not fall under E.U.’s third energy package rule. “We have a legal opinion that the Nord Stream-2 does not fall under regulations of the third energy package,” he said, pointing out that he was speaking about the deep-sea pipeline.

“There have been no notifications submitted to us and to the Nord Stream-2 that the project falls under the regulations of the third energy package,” Miller added.

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