ST.PETERSBURG, June 1. /TASS/. The European partners of Russian gas giant Gazprom in the Nord Stream-2 project will get their profit in the form on interest payments on lending, Mario Mehren, head of German oil and gas company Wintershall, said in an interview with TASS.
When asked how the European partners are going to get profit in the project without setting up a joint venture Mehren said.
"We have decided to support the Nord Stream 2 project financially. We are providing financial facilities. We get our return via interest payments that we are going to receive from the Nord Stream-2 project company. So we are in a position of a lender."
He added that that his company does not plan to get a stake in the project in order to return funds.
"No, this a trade forward lending structure when we lend money, get interest back and someday in the future we also get the principle amount back," he said.
Mehren added that Wintershall plans to finance the project using its own funds without attracting any co-creditors.
Earlier, Engie, OMV, Shell, Uniper and Wintershall reached an agreement with Gazprom on the financing of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline project. Under the deal, the European partners will cover 50% of the project’s cost. Each company will contribute 950 million euros. Gazprom will remain the only shareholder of the Nord Stream 2 AG project company.
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.