E.ON rejects call for Nord Stream 1's closure
German energy group E.ON has rejected a call by Poland's government to close the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline in light of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on February 26 that all kinds of sanctions against Russia should be on the table, including the closure of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, launched in 2011. Days earlier German chancellor Olaf Scholz halted the certification process for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline because of events in Ukraine.
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E.ON, which has a 15.5% stake in Nord Stream 1, stressed that the project was "completely different from the ongoing discussions about the Nord Stream 2 line."
"Nord Stream 1 is a permitted and fully operational gas import pipeline," the company told German newspaper Rheinische Post on February 28, adding the pipeline's capacity had been fully utilised in the past two years.
The other shareholders in Nord Stream 1 include Russia's Gazprom, Germany's Wintershall Dea, the Netherlands' Gasunie and France's Engie. Wintershall Dea is also one of the five European companies that provided loans to fund the construction of the $11bn Nord Stream 2 pipeline. On March 2, the firm said it had written those €1bn ($1.1bn) of loans as an impairment.
In related news, the Swiss-based Nord Stream 2 AG operating company denied on March 2 that it was preparing to file for insolvency. Earlier a Swiss official had told local officials that was its intention. However, Nord Stream 2 AG has said it is terminating the contracts of all its employees.