Gazprom: no German loans in pipeline project
Russian gas giant Gazprom has denied that it used German bank loans to finance construction of a major new pipeline through the Baltic Sea.
"Gazprom is carrying out construction of the overland part of the Northern European pipeline by itself. No financing from German banks was used for this project," the company, which is the world's largest natural gas supplier, said in a statement on Monday.
A spokesman for Gazprom told AFP that "German banks had a proposal of financing the Russia part. We didn't accept it."
The German economy ministry said Saturday that the previous government of Gerhard Schroeder had guaranteed a credit of one billion euros (1.2 billion dollars) for the Russian group Gazprom's Baltic pipeline project.
An inter-ministerial commission rushed through a "decision in principle" on October 24 last year while waiting for a new coalition to be formed by now Chancellor Angela Merkel, a spokesman for the economy minister said, confirming reports published Saturday in the Suddeutsche Zeitung (SZ).
Schroeder was voted in Thursday as head of the supervisory board of a consortium that plans to build the natural gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany.
Gazprom holds 51 percent of the consortium's shares, with the other 49 percent held by German companies E.ON and BASF.
Gazprom's hiring of Schroeder last December at an annual salary of 250,000 euros (300,000 dollars) touched off controversy over his links to Gazprom while in power.
AFP
