VIENNA,12 August. / TASS/ The project Nord Stream-2 pipeline will get the approval of the European Commission, despite political differences over Ukraine, the head of the Austrian oil and Gas Company OMV Rainer Seele told said at a press conference in Vienna on Wednesday.
"This is a European project, and I hope that in spite of the lingering political differences over the situation in Ukraine, it will be supported by the European Commission," he said.
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Seele stressed that the Nord Stream-2 is needed to improve the stability of energy supplies.
He recalled that the cooperation memorandum signed in June with Gazprom involves the participation of Austrian companies in the project, as well as its possible participation in the development of the Urengoy field.
"We want to create a true partnership from mining in Siberia, to transport to the European Union," Seele said , and stressed that an important task is to preserve the role of OMV distribution center in Baumgarten, Austria.
On June 18, during the St. Petersburg Economic Forum signed an agreement with E.ON, Shell, OMV to develop gas transportation network to deliver gas to Europe. The four companies have signed a memorandum of intentions on creating a gas transportation infrastructure to ensure direct supplies of Russia gas to European consumers.
The Nord Stream will become the first export route where Gazprom will implement the practice of short-term auctions for gas deliveries. It hopes to hold three auctions where it will sell 127 lots on September 7, 8, 9, and 10. The first auction envisions delivery of gas by the Nord Stream to Greifswald and the subsequent supplies to customers by the NEL pipeline (48 lots). The second auction will have 22 lots and will envision transportation of gas by the OPAL pipeline from Greifswald. The third auction will have 57 lots and presuppose delivery to the Olbernhau-2 station, which is the point of entry to the pipeline system of the Czech Republic. During the winter of 2015/2016 supplies of gas purchased at the auctions will reach 3.2 billion cubic meters.
Nord Stream has two 1,224 km-long threads, and each thread has a throughput capacity for 27.5 bcm of gas. It links Europe directly to the largest deposits of natural gas via Baltic seabed. NEL and OPAL pipelines are the Nord Stream’s extensions in the territory of Germany. Russia’s major producer and exporter of gas, Gazprom, has a 51.0% stake in the pipeline. The other shareholders are Wintershall and E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany (15.5% each), Casunie of the Netherlands (9.0%) and ENGIE of France (also 9.0%).