German Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA) temporarily suspended the certification of the Nord Stream 2 project. Its operator, Nord Stream 2 AG, will have to create a special purpose company responsible for the management of the gas pipeline in accordance with the EU law of the gas directive.
BNetzA explains that after a thorough examination of the documentation provided by Nord Stream 2 AG, it concluded that the certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline will be possible only when the operator operates under German law. Nord Stream 2 AG is a company registered in Switzerland.
Nord Stream 2 AG has decided not to change its legal form, but to create a subsidiary in Germany that will manage part of the gas pipeline in the territorial waters of that country. The subsidiary will then have to meet the requirements of the independent transmission operator specified in the German act on the energy industry. It will become the operator of the German part of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
The certification procedure will remain suspended until the transfer of the main assets and human resources to the new subsidiary, when the Bundesnetzagentur is able to verify that the documentation resubmitted by the subsidiary as a new applicant is complete. Once these requirements are met, Bundesnetzagentur will be able to resume the project certification procedure, which is expected to take four months from then on. Without BnetzA certification, the deliveries initially planned for the end of 2019 will not be able to start.
It is worth adding that, according to the information of BiznesAlert.pl, the need to adapt Nord Stream 2 to EU regulations may even lead to the bankruptcy of NS2 AG.
Bundesnetzagentur/Mariusz Marszałkowski/Michał Perzyński