OREANDA-NEWS. The closer the completion of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, the more vague its fate, and it is completely unclear what will happen after September, when the construction is completed. The pipeline, which was built by Gazprom for 12 billion euros with loans from European partners, was supposed to double gas supplies from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea - it was laid next to the similar Nord Stream pipeline with a capacity of 55 billion cubic meters per year.

But in the EU, officials started talking about the inevitable sale of the pipe, the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported.

A German court previously refused to exempt Nord Stream 2 from EU energy laws requiring separation of gas production and transportation. As a result, Gazprom will only be able to load half of the pipeline's capacity, while the rest will have to be put up for auction for other gas suppliers.

Nord Stream 2 AG (created by Gazprom), the project operator still hopes to get the status of an independent transport operator in Germany. In this case, the company is exempted from the requirements of the EU directive and will be able to fully load the pipe with its gas. The application was submitted in the summer to the Federal Network Agency.

The goal is to fulfill unbundling requirements by separating the pipeline operations from the parent company in terms of accounting and operations. The network agency has four months to test this. In November, or a little later, a decision will be announced.

The German authorities are apparently ready to allow such a design, the newspaper said. However, according to representatives of the European Commission dealing with this issue, it does not meet EU requirements, they say that "there is no getting around the sale of the pipeline." Then the line will comply with the norms of the EU gas directive.