10 mar 2023 3:31 p.m
According to media information, the Ministry of Economics wants to buy around 3,000 pipes from Nord Stream 2 AG, which are currently being stored unused. However, the owner of the tubes urgently needed for the German LNG gas pipelines is still the Russian company Gazprom.
Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) recently accused German companies of willfully circumventing sanctions against Russia. The minister is now threatening, if there is a clear burden of proof, based on “intentional violations”, that the authority would “punish criminal offences”.
The World reports on this in one Article about a difficult media-strategic challenge for the Habeck Ministry. Accordingly, the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) is flirting with the acquisition of “around 3,000 pipes from Nord Stream 2 AG that were left over from the construction of the Baltic Sea pipeline”.
As a result, the Ministry of Economics is “in contract negotiations with the so-called administrator of the now insolvent Nord Stream 2 AG”. The company filed for bankruptcy in September 2022, but is still owned by the Russian company Gazprom. After trying to file for bankruptcy yet to avertthe news agency had Reuters “citing anonymous sources of an imminent bankruptcy of Nord Stream 2 AG reported“, according to the magazine Mirror on the 1st of March. The World-Article explains the status quo of the plans:
“Negotiations are apparently well advanced. Sanctions would probably not stand in the way of the deal. Will the money flow to Moscow in the end?”
According to the Ministry, the tube objects of desire should “ensure the fastest possible independence through liquid gas imports”. The logical argumentation of the Worldarticle reads for more background:
“A roughly 37-kilometer-long connection is planned between the terminal for liquefied natural gas (LNG) planned off Rügen and the coastal town of Lubmin. Actually, the tubes with an inner diameter of 1.20 meters are much too big for this project, but the (in total) 6000 pipes have a decisive advantage: they are already lying around unused.”
Accordingly, “it has to happen as quickly as possible” so that “enough gas – for Germany – will be available next winter.” Compared to the purchase option, “it would take significantly longer to connect the planned LNG terminal if the tubes had to be manufactured and measured first,” he said World-Article. According to statements by World one wants to “make absolutely sure in the Ministry of Economics that no money from the deal would flow to Russia”. On the subject of a possible circumvention of sanctions with regard to their own rigid requirements and existing EU regulations, it says:
“Surprisingly, sanctions do not stand in the way of business. Because the EU has not yet imposed any direct sanctions against Nord Stream 2 and the parent company Gazprom. If Russia had not unilaterally stopped deliveries and if the pipelines were still intact, Russian gas deliveries would still be possible. However, there are There have been US sanctions against Nord Stream 2 since 2019, well before the Russians invaded Ukraine again. These were intended to prevent completion and commissioning.”
The US sanctions that continue to apply to Nord Stream 2 AG/Gazprom would only be avoided by a BMWK deal if it were ensured that no money transfers were made to Russia. Loud World-Information from government circles has already been clarified with the US authorities on this topic “all necessary questions”. It goes on to say in this regard:
“Now only a secure solution has to be found so that the money ends up with the Swiss trustee of the insolvent company and does not flow out.”
Neither representatives of Nord Stream 2 AG/Gazprom, nor RWE AG, which is to build the terminal and connection on behalf of the federal government, wanted to comment on the existence of a possible tube deal with the World to express. As a further argument in addition to the need for an accelerated LNG connection, there is said to be another justification for the tube deal from quoted “government circles”:
“If the state didn’t buy it, there would probably be no other customer. The tubes would just stay where they were and eventually be scrapped.”
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