You're reading: Gazprom still working on Nord Stream expansion, but with delays

Moscow - Gazprom is still working on further expanding the Nord Stream gas pipeline, although it is already lagging behind the originally announced schedule.

Last October, when the participants in the Nord Stream consortium recognized the possibility (from a technical, environmental and financially feasible point of view) of constructing one or two extra lines of the gas pipeline, plans were announced to sign a memorandum to create these new lines in January 2013 and to establish a new joint company in Q1.

However, now the joint venture is expected to be founded in Q2. A gas industry source told Interfax that the reason behind the delay is purely technical – the new company has to possess solid capital to finance research. This kind of transaction will have to meet with board of directors approval at Gazprom.

Meanwhile, work on the project for new Nord Stream lines continues. Gazprom is in bilateral negotiations with participants in the consortium, the source said. Who of the current partners will remain in the new joint venture and which new partners will join (there have been reports that one of the new lines might deliver Russian gas to Great Britain) is still being decided. However, the ongoing negotiating process should not have a significant influence on the implementation of the project. For example, the joint venture to construct Nord Stream’s first and second lines originally comprised three partners (Gazprom, E.ON and BASF), and later Gasunie and GDF Suez were added to it, the source said.

The 1,224-kilometer Nord Stream gas pipeline joins up Vyborg, Russia and Greifswald, Germany, passing along the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Its two current lines have a capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year. At the moment, their capacities are a third of the way filled.