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The company responsible for the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline received a six-month stay of bankruptcy, shielding it from creditors, the AP reported, noting the stay will last from January 2023 to June the same year.
The gas pipeline, which doubled the capacity of its twin pipeline Nord Stream 1 to 110 billion cubic meters, was among the first targets of sanction action from Europe against Russia, even before its invasion of Ukraine.
Two days before Russian troops entered eastern Ukraine, Germany’s government said it would not certify Nord Stream 2, meaning the billion-dollar piece of infrastructure could not be put into operation. The announcement came following Moscow’s official recognition of two eastern Ukrainian regions, Donetsk and Luhansk, as independent.
The United States also imposed sanctions on Swiss-based Nord Stream 2 AG, a day before the invasion began.
Soon after, reports emerged that the company was considering filing for insolvency after it let all its employees go following the sanctions announced by Washington.
A bankruptcy procedure eventually began but was suspended by a court in Zug, Switzerland, where the company is registered. The first loan repayment moratorium was granted for the period until September 2022, which was then extended until January 2023, Russia’s TASS reported in early September.
This is the third, and longest, extension that Nord Stream 2 AG has received from the Swiss court to protect it from its creditors.
The same-name pipeline, meanwhile, suffered damage in an act of sabotage on the twin pipelines last summer, which put an end to all gas deliveries via the Nord Stream system. According to Gazprom, damage on the Nord Stream 2 is smaller than on its sister pipeline and it can be repaired. The investigation of the blasts failed to name the perpetrator of the sabotage.
