Russian state-owned gas and oil giant Gazprom and its partners have agreed to allocate 6.65 billion euros ($7.5 billion) to the Nord Stream 2 project in the event that sufficient funds are not available.
The agreement obliges Gazprom and other oil and gas companies participating in the project, including Engie, OMV, Royal Dutch Shell, Uniper and Wintershall, to grant loans in order to eliminate any possible financial deficit.
"The agreement on deficit financing regulates the obligation to provide a loan to Nord Stream 2 AG in the event of failure to attract funding (up to 70 percent of the total project costs, or up to 6.65 billion euros) under the EURIBOR+ rate from 5.75 percent to 6.75 percent per annum (depending on the volume of financing)," Gazprom said in a statement.
Gazprom is the only shareholder of the Nord Stream 2 AG company, and its five European partners have pledged to provide long-term financing for half of the project cost, which totals nearly 9.5 billion euros.
The Nord Stream 2 is a two-pipeline project that will carry natural gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, with a throughput capacity of 55 billion cubic meters per year.
