A worker inspects pipes for the North Stream 2. (Jens Büttner/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa/archive)
The CEO of the Austrian oil and gas company OMV, Rainer Seele, considers concerns from Ukraine and European politicians over the Baltic Sea pipeline North Stream 2 to be excessive.
The new 1,200-kilometer long gas pipeline between Russia and Germany will not fully replace the existing routes, the manager told the German press agency dpa shortly before an upcoming visit from Russian President Vladimir Putin at OMV.
“There shouldn’t be the impression that North Stream 2 is being built so that the capacities in Ukraine won’t be used at all anymore,” said Seele.
Ukraine is insisting with the support of the German government that its existing revenues as a transit state for Russian gas exports won’t fall off because of the pipeline. The EU’s dependence on Russian gas is not growing threateningly at all either, said Seele.
OMV is among the investors of the multi-billion-Euro North Stream 2 project. The company will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its gas supply contract with the former Soviet Union on 5 June in the presence of Putin.
Decisions on the three remaining missing construction permits from Russia, Denmark and Sweden could be made in late summer, said Seele.
So far, the eight investors in the North Stream 2 AG - including Shell and Germany’s Wintershall - have made 4 billion Euro available for the project, he added.
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