Status: 03/01/2022 18:54
Nord Stream 2 AG, the Swiss company that owns the new Baltic Sea pipeline to Russia, is insolvent. The employment contracts of the more than 140 employees have already been terminated.
After the Baltic Sea pipeline stopped, the Swiss owner company went bankrupt. Nord Stream 2 AG, headquartered in Zug, had to “deposit the balance sheet”, i.e. had to file for bankruptcy, said the government councilor of the canton of Zug, Silvia Thalmann-Gut, the broadcaster SRF. A week ago, the United States imposed sanctions on the company because of the conflict with Russia.
According to Swiss Economy Minister Guy Parmelin, Nord Stream 2 has already terminated the employment contracts with more than 140 employees. It is a subsidiary of the Russian Gazprom group and has its headquarters in Zug, a good 30 kilometers south of Zurich. However, half of the eleven billion dollar pipeline project was financed by the energy and oil giants Shell, OMV, Engie, Uniper and Wintershall DEA.
Approval process put on hold
With the 1230-kilometer pipeline through the Baltic Sea, Russia wanted to double the capacity of natural gas deliveries to Germany. Nord Stream 2 is finished, but the federal government had put the approval process and thus commissioning on hold because of the Russian attack on Ukraine. Germany gets around 50 percent of its natural gas imports from Russia and, according to the Federal Statistical Office, transferred 19.4 billion euros for oil and natural gas to the country last year.
As part of the sanctions against Russia last week, the US Treasury Department had demanded that all transactions with Nord Stream 2 AG and its majority holdings be completed by March 2nd. Washington was very critical of the pipeline even before the Russian attack on Ukraine. The managing director of Nord Stream 2 AG, the former Stasi agent Matthias Warnig, has been sanctioned by the USA.