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Pipes for Nord Stream-2 project could cost Gazprom at least €2.6 bln

Gazprom assumes European insurance companies and financial institutions will be involved in the project financing

MOSCOW, September 17. /TASS/. The cost of large-diameter pipes for Nord Stream-2 is going to be lower in euro than the amount for the first and second lines in 2012, when the total payment for contracts for purchasing pipes amounted to around €2.6 bln, a source in the sector told TASS Thursday. The source noted that in 2012 domestic prices for the metal have doubled, and the price for pipes increased by an average of 30-40%.

"It is expected that we finish accepting applications for participation in tenders for the supply of pipes for Nord Stream-2 will be completed in October, and the results will be announced in January," the source said.

In September, Gazprom Deputy Chairman Alexander Medvedev said that the European financial institutions showed a preliminary interest in financing the Nord Stream-2 project. Given the fact that the Nord Stream-2 shareholders are European companies, "we think that European insurance companies and financial institutions will be involved in the project financing," Medvedev said. "Our finance department has already begun preliminary examination of this issue. However, this does not mean that we are not going to attract the funds from Asia," he concluded.

Medvedev also said that Gazprom was going to prepare a business plan and a procedure for tenders on pipes in the framework of the Nord Stream 2 project by January. "We are currently preparing a business plan and at the same time tenders for a number of key positions, such as pipes. Both will be approved in January," he said.

In early September, the head of the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service Igor Artemyev said Service planned to appeal to the Russian President Vladimir Putin in connection with alleged violations in the purchase of pipes by Gazprom.

Nord Stream-2 implies construction of two natural gas pipelines with capacity of 55 bln cubic meters per year from Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea. Joint company New European Pipeline AG will implement the project. Gazprom will hold 51% on the joint company, Germany's E.ON and BASF/Wintershall, the Anglo-Dutch Shell and Austrian OMV - 10% each, the French ENGIE - 9%.

The preliminary cost of construction of the third and fourth line of the project may amount to about €10 bln. The first two totaled €8.5 bln.