The federal government is buying pipes from Nord Stream 2 AG that were left over from the construction of the controversial Baltic Sea pipeline. They are to be used to connect the new LNG terminal on Rügen to the German gas network.
The recycling business is tricky: The seller Nord Stream 2 AG belongs to the Russian state-owned company Gazprom.
The Ministry of Economy confirmed a report by the “Ostsee-Zeitung” in principle, but gave no details. The contracts were classified as confidential. It was only said that all legal sanctions issues had been clarified.
The recycling deal was tricky, now it’s done. Under the leadership of Economics Minister Robert Habeck, the federal government is buying pipes from Nord Stream 2 AG that were left over from the construction of the controversial Baltic Sea pipeline. They are to be used to connect the planned LNG terminal off Rügen to the German gas network. The special thing about the deal: the seller Nord Stream 2 AG belongs to the Russian state-owned company Gazprom.
Habeck’s Ministry of Economics confirmed a report by the “Ostsee-Zeitung”that the purchase was complete, but did not want to give any details: “We cannot provide any information about the number of pipes and the costs because the contracts were classified as confidential.” According to the Ostsee-Zeitung and earlier reports, several thousand pipes are involved .
The ministry emphasized that all legal sanctions issues had been clarified. In addition, it was checked whether technical documents, measurement data and reports on the natural gas pipeline were also acquired.
According to earlier information from the state government of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the remaining Nord Stream 2 pipes with a total length of 60 kilometers are stored in Sassnitz on the island of Rügen.
Nord Stream 2 was supposed to transport large amounts of natural gas from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea. The project was highly controversial from the start. Above all, Poland, Ukraine and the USA had repeatedly warned Germany against this. The pipeline was nevertheless completed in early 2022. Only after Russia’s attack on Ukraine did the federal government stop the approval. In the summer of 2022, the pipeline was destroyed by sabotage. The perpetrators and clients have not yet been identified.
The federal government wants to build a floating terminal for liquefied natural gas (LNG) off Rügen. The Sassnitz port of Mukran is preferred for this. In order to connect the LNG terminal to the German gas network, a connection of around 37 kilometers to the coastal town of Lubmin is planned. According to the original plans for this pipeline, the Nord Stream tubes with an inner diameter of 1.20 meters would actually be too large. But they have one advantage: 6,000 of these pipes are already lying around unused.
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With them, the pipeline connection would go much faster, also because the tubes have already been measured and technically approved. For this reason, the Ministry also engaged in the purchase of the associated documents, measurements and reports that are required for the laying of such a pipeline.
Nord Stream 2 AG had the additional 6,000 pipes, each 18 meters long, made because the company feared that a detour would have to be made around Danish sovereign waters, but then the Danes surprisingly approved the direct route.
According to earlier information from „Welt“ it was about the sale of a good 3000 of these leftover tubes and the associated data. Right from the start, the prerequisite was that no money from the deal flowed to Russia via Nord Stream parent Gazprom.
Sanctions against Russia do not stand in the way of business. So far, the EU has not imposed direct sanctions against either Nord Stream 2 or Gazprom. If Russia had not unilaterally stopped supplies and if the pipelines were still intact, Russian gas supplies would still be possible. However, US sanctions against Nord Stream 2 have been in place since 2019, well before Russia’s second incursion into Ukraine following the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
According to information from “Welt”, these US sanctions do not represent an obstacle for the purchase of the tubes from the point of view of the federal government – provided it can be ensured that no money flows to Moscow. All necessary questions have been clarified with the US authorities. How the transaction is now structured and processed via the trustee appointed by a Swiss bankruptcy court, the company Transliq, is part of the contract classified as “confidential”.
With material from DPA and the Welt.
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