German warehouse stores pipelines required for potential revival of Nord Stream project

An estimated 1,000 pipes belonging to the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 companies are still being stored in a German warehouse that could suffice for the complete repair of the damaged gas pipelines.

The pipes are being kept in a warehouse in Lubmin, according to an article by the German Ostsee Zeitung as Caliber.Az reports.

It is the very site where the underwater pipelines belonging to the suspended gas project connect with Germany’s onshore gas transmission system.  This was reported by the newspaper Ostsee Zeitung.

"The material is highly valuable," an insider told the publication, claryfing that whoever possesses the pipes holds the raw material needed to quickly repair the Baltic Sea pipeline sections that were allegedly blown up by a Ukrainian commando in September 2022.

Nord Stream’s lawyer, Hans-Peter Huber, confirmed that the pipes belong to the operators of the Nord Stream pipelines, a consortium incorporated in Switzerland and linked to the Russian energy titan Gazprom. The Nord Stream 2 project was formerly headed by the former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who resigned in 2022.

According to the article, the situation is complicated by an ongoing court case in Switzerland concerning Nord Stream 2’s debt to minor creditors. The court has extended the deadline until May 9 for the company to reach an agreement with creditors; otherwise, it could be declared bankrupt. In that case, the approximately 500 pipes belonging to Nord Stream 2 may be sold at auction. The pipes owned by the original Nord Stream operator would not be affected by this process.

Sources told the German publication that the total value of the 1,000 pipes is estimated at approximately €25 million.

Several months following the outbreak of the 2022 Ukraine-Russia conflict an explosion occured in the Baltic Sea damaging the Nord Stream infrastructure, including pipelines belonging to both routes. The American Wall Street Journal reported that intelligence information suggests the incident was carried out by a small Ukrainian sabotage team in an operation that was initially approved by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, though called off later on, with the agents continuing with the plan nevertheless.

By Nazrin Sadigova