Potential participants in the project for the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline - Gazprom , Engie, OMV, Shell, Uniper and Wintershall - refused to create a joint venture (JV), it follows from their joint press release.

The creation of a joint venture was previously opposed by the Polish Office for Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK, the local antitrust regulator). At the end of June, he announced that he opposed the creation of the Nord Stream 2 joint venture to build and manage the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The deadline for responding to the regulator's objections expires on August 16, but the applicant companies submitted it earlier. They announced this on Friday.

Following this, the applicants decided to jointly withdraw the merger notification they had filed with the Polish competition authority, their press release said. All applicants consider the Nord Stream 2 project important for the European energy system and each of the applicants will independently seek opportunities to contribute to the project, they write.

Currently, the sole shareholder of the Nord Stream 2 AG project organization is Gazprom, explains a source close to one of the companies participating in the project. The decision to withdraw the merger notice means the European companies will not be shareholders in the joint venture as previously planned.

“We are at the stage of analyzing the situation, it is too early to draw conclusions at this stage,” an OMV spokesman said. The remaining companies have not yet responded to Vedomosti’s requests.

Gazprom is clearly looking for ways to bypass the Polish antimonopoly agency, but it seems that it has not yet found it, says Mikhail Korchemkin, director of East European Gas Analysis.

The decision to withdraw the notification will not affect Nord Stream 2 AG’s continuation of the previously planned construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, the press release says. The project is progressing according to schedule and within budget, a representative of Nord Stream 2 AG said.

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline should run along the bottom of the Baltic Sea from the Russian coast to the German coast. The throughput capacity of the two lines is 27.5 billion cubic meters each. m per year. It will double the capacity of the existing Nord Stream. Commissioning is scheduled for 2019.

Poland prevented the creation of a joint venture for Nord Stream 2