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followed reports that pipe laying activities had resumed on 6 Febrary in Danish waters after a delay of over 14 months. If this schedule is adhered to, it would mark a faster-than-expected physical completion of the project – we were thinking even only a single line might take until summer to complete – so this is obviously good news for Gazprom. However, physical completion does not mean an immediate start to operations, as the lines would still have to be independently certified, and US sanctions have also targeted any company that might provide that service. This challenge we also expect Gazprom and its partners in Nord Stream-2 to overcome, but our timeline of a start-up of gas shipments sometime in 2022 may well still hold. With pipe laying restarted, NS2 is now expected to be physically finished by May. The hurdle of certification remains, but after more than a year of sanctions delays, Gazprom’s most high profile project is finally moving forward again.
Wintershall Dea CEO Mario Mehren has given an interview about financing Nord Stream 2 and its Russian business to Kommersant. The key highlights are as follows.
· Wintershall Dea provided EUR 730mn in finance for the Nord Stream-2 pipeline construction, as was requested by the project operator. The company believes that currently there is no indication that additional financing will be requested and therefore provided this year.
· Wintershall’s JV with Gazprom Achimgas, which is developing the Achimov deposits at the 1A area of the Urengoyskoye field, reached plateau production and produced 50bcm of gas by the middle of last year.
· In January, Achimgas started production at the 4A area and plans also to launch production at the 5A area in the coming months.
· The company is also discussing with Gazprom potential different methods of hydrogen production, such as methane pyrolysis.
Gazprom’s European partners in the Nord Stream-2 project (Shell, Uniper, Wintershall, OMV and Engie) were set to provide up to 50% of the total cost of the project, which was estimated by Gazprom at EUR 9.5bn, or up to EUR 950mn each on the pledge of 10% stakes in the project.
As for the Achimgas JV, we note that the asset’s 1А area reached plateau production of 10bcm in October 2019, while Gazprom expects total production to rise to 15.5bcm by 2027-30 following the launch of the 4A and 5A licence areas at the Urengoyskoye field. Overall, we see the newsflow as not market-moving for Gazprom.
Gazprom’s European partners for Nord Stream 2 might provide less
110 RUSSIA Country Report March 2021 www.intellinews.com