Wintershall Dea to seek financial compensation for Nord Stream 2
Quantum Commodity Intelligence - One of the co-investors of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, Wintershall Dea, will seek financial compensation after the west placed sanctions on its builders while Germany halted its certification process indefinitely, the company said in its financial support.
The company is one of five Western investors which have loaned half of the $11 billion price tag to Russian Gazprom, the constructor of the pipeline which connects Russia with Germany via the Baltic Sea.
"Should the commissioning of Nord Stream 2 be prevented by political intervention, we assume that the project company will be able to enforce compensation claims," the company said in its Q4 earnings report.
Wintershall Dea is one of the main investors of the new pipeline and has lent €730 million, with the balance of the financing being provided by Uniper, Shell, OMV, and Engie.
Yet it deemed the possibility of a complete cancellation to the process as "an unlikely event" while there are "contractual provisions in place" which will limit the financial risk to the company.
After supporting the construction of the pipeline since its inauguration in 2018, Germany on Tuesday indefinitely suspended certification - a process needed to put the pipe into commercial use – following Putin's order to move troops into Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
"Even if there might be a delay in commissioning due to the not yet completed certification process, we expect that the contractual obligations towards the financial investors will be fulfilled," the company said.
The US followed Germany on Wednesday and placed sanctions on the parent company, Swiss-based Nord Stream AG and Gazprom, by rescinding a national security waiver on sanctions first proposed in May 2021.
Wintershall Dea declined to take questions from investors and analysts during the investors call on Thursday, saying it is waiting for "greater clarity" on the Russian-Ukraine conflict before issuing any further statements which it is "observing with great concern and dismay".
On Wednesday, Uniper's CEO said he remained optimistic to a diplomatic resolution to the certification of the pipeline and said it would be seeking financial compensation, a few echoed a day earlier by OMV.
