Austria’s OMV, one of Gazprom’s five European partners in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, invested $124 million in the project in 2019, the company said in a report, according to TASS.
“Cash flow from investing activities in 2019 included a cash outflow of $124 million related to the financing agreements for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project,” the report reads.
Nord Stream 2 is built by Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom, with the participation of several large European companies, including OMV. The nearly finished pipeline suffered a setback in December when the U.S. imposed sanctions threatening penalties to all companies included in the project.
The infrastructure project was halted after the decision of Swiss offshore contractor Allseas to suspend its activities in order to avoid sanctions from Washington. That pushed back the timetable of its completion, with Russian officials having given various estimates of when it would go online — from the end of 2020 to early 2021.
Late last month, Gazprom said it will complete the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project under the Baltic Sea on its own without the help of foreign companies.
“The Nord Stream 2 project, which is already 94 percent complete, will be finished by the Russian side,” Gazprom deputy head Yelena Burmistrova reportedly told the European Gas Conference in Vienna on January 28.
It remains unclear how Gazprom would finish the project without international assistance. Options on the table, according to the Financial Times, include using vessels owned by Gazprom and other Russian pipe-laying contractors.
The foreign companies building the pipeline — all not part of Gazprom’s project consortium — were Finnish, Swedish, and Danish.
