Representatives of Gazprom, BASF, E.On, Engie, OMV and Shell on Thursday signed a shareholders’ agreement on implementation of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project to enhance supply of natural gas to the European Union’s market.
The project will be developed by the new project company New European Pipeline AG. According to the document, Gazprom will own a 51 per cent share in the project company. E.ON, Shell, OMV and BASF/Wintershall will each own ten per cent and ENGIE will hold nine per cent.
The Nord Stream 2 project envisages the construction of two offshore pipelines with the aggregate annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas to be constructed from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea. The project will build on the experience of Nord Stream.
“Nord Stream 2 will double the throughput of our direct, state-of-the-art gas supply route via the Baltic Sea. It is important that those are mostly the new gas volumes, which will be sought for in Europe due to the continuous decline in its domestic production. The fact that the global energy majors participate in the project bespeaks its significance for securing reliable gas supply to European consumers, ” said Alexey Miller , Gazprom CEO.
“For more than 20 years, BASF has been participating in the construction of pipelines to ensure secure supplies of Russian gas to Europe. We want to bring our expertise to the expansion of Nord Stream and look forward to working with Gazprom and the other partners on this important infrastructure project,” said Kurt Bock , Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors at BASF.