Russia: Merger to build gas pipeline from Russia to Germany falters

A plan for multiple large European energy companies to team up to build a second natural-gas pipeline from Russia to Germany has collapsed, but the impact on the overall project was unclear.

An application with Poland’s competition authority to form a joint venture to build a pipeline called Nord Stream 2 was withdrawn in the face of opposition from Warsaw, where the deal was seen as giving Russia greater sway over Polish energy supplies.

That leaves Russia’s state-owned PAO Gazprom as the project’s sole operator, potentially robbing it of the political support that big European partners like Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Germany’s Wintershall AG provided.

Poland hailed the decision. “This will stop the deal,” Marek Niechial,the president of Poland’s antitrust authority, said on Friday.

But in a joint statement, the consortium of Gazprom, Shell, Wintershall, French utility Engie SA, Austria’s OMV AG, and a unit of German utility E.ON SEsaid the decision wouldn’t affect the project, which has had strong backing from German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Full Content: The Wall Street Journal

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