MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/. CEOs of a number of European energy companies warn that the sanctions the United States wants to be imposed on the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline may entail negatives consequences for Europe, Germany’s Handelsblatt said on Thursday.
Thus, Matthias Warnig, the Managing Director of Nord Stream 2 AG, the company for the construction and operation of the Nord Stream-2 pipeline, said the impacts of the anti-Russian sanctions might be "huge" and would tell on the territory from "China to Western Europe."
Rainer Seele, CEO of Austria’s oil company OMV, explained that Europe wants more gas from Russia and is not interested in cutting its gas imports. "It is in the interests of Europe to ensure stable [gas] supplies," he said. "From the European point of view, more natural gas from Russia is needed because its own production is decreasing."
The construction of the gas pipeline is planned to begin in 2018 to be over in later 2019. The 1,220 pipeline will run across the bottom the Baltic Sea from the Russian coast to Germany. The capacity of each of its two threads will be 27.5 billion cubic meters a year. The new pipeline, basically following the same route as Nord Stream, will double its capacity. The overall cost of the project is 9.9 billion euro.
The project operator is Nord Stream 2 AG. Russia’s Gazprom hold a 50% stake in the company. Other shareholders are BASF, Engie, OMV, Shell, and Uniper (an E.ON subsidiary), each holding a ten-percent stake.