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Austria’s OMV is ready to provide extra funding for Nord Stream-2

BERLIN, May 11. /TASS/. Austria’s oil and gas company OMV is ready to provide additional funding for the Nord Stream-2 pipeline project, if required, the company’s CEO Rainer Seele said at a panel discussion held at the Russian embassy in Berlin.

"If additional funding is required, we, as OMV, will make it possible," he said.

Earlier, Gazprom and five European companies - Engie, OMV, Royal Dutch Shell, Uniper and Wintershall - agreed on a new model for financing the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline project, which had been negotiated since August 2016.

As a result, the following decision was found: Gazprom remains the sole shareholder of the project company Nord Stream 2 AG, and European companies will provide long-term financing in the amount of 50% of the total cost of the project, which is now estimated at 9.5 billion euros.

At the same time, the European partners of Nord Stream-2 and Gazprom will provide the operator of the Nord Stream 2 AG with a bridge loan of 6.65 billion euros (up to 70% of the total project costs) at a rate of 6% per annum. This is an interim loan, which will be provided before Nord Stream 2 AG can attract project financing.

Speaking at the Russian embassy in Berlin, Seele also urged Germany to become more intensively involved in the Nord Stream-2 project.

"Germany, if it is convinced of this project, should get involved more intensively in it," he said.

"We, as the parties that finance the project, are not interested in confrontation, but we want to convince those countries that doubt it," Seele said.

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is expected to come into service at the end of 2019. The pipeline is set to run from the Russian coast along the Baltic Sea bed to the German shore. Each of the pipeline’s two stretches will have a capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters. The new pipeline will double the capacity of the first stretch and will basically follow its route. Capital expenditures on the project are estimated at 8 bln euros and its total cost will amount to 9.9 bln euros, taking into account project financing.