Austria will lend its support to the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline, its Vice-Chancellor of Austria Reinhold Mitterlehner assured Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev this week. “Austria has a particular interest in this project ,” he said. “it very important for us to diversify our gas supply and… for [Austrian oil distributor] OMV to participate.”
Last September, Gazprom, BASF, E.ON, Engie, OMV and Shell signed a shareholders’ agreement to lay a second, 55bcm capacity Nord Stream gas pipeline system running from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea; but the project has become increasingly controversial with Ukraine this week filing an official complaint with the EU claiming it is a political rather than an economic initiative.
During a meeting earlier this week, the two men also agreed to a 5% increase in the capacity of the Haidach underground gas storage facility near Salzburg, the second largest such facility in Central Europe.
Austria gets behind Nord Stream 2
Source: Interfax