All employees terminated: “Nord Stream 2 AG” is in bankruptcy

Nord Stream 2 AG, based in the Swiss canton of Zug, which is building the Baltic Sea gas pipeline between Russia and Germany, is in bankruptcy. More than 100 employees are affected. This was explained by Zug government adviser Sylvia Thalmann-Gutt on Tuesday to Blick TV.

The director of the economy said, according to AFP, that Nord Stream 2 AG, based in Zug, had to “file the balance sheet”, that is, it had to file for bankruptcy. On Monday evening, the Swiss Minister of Economic Affairs, Guy Parmelin, stated, on the television program “Forum” on Radio Télévision Suisse francophone RTS, that all employees of Nord Stream 2 in Zug have been laid off.

140 layoffs

Parmlin spoke of more than 140 people who have been laid off. Thalmann said the number ranged from 100 to 110 employees. Zug’s Department of Economics was contacted by Nord Stream 2 on Monday and was informed in detail about the bankruptcy on Tuesday.

It appears that the bankruptcy and layoffs of a subsidiary of Russia’s Gazprom are a consequence of the German government’s decision to suspend the Nord Stream 2 project. A week ago, Chancellor Olaf Schultz halted the approval process for the 1,230-kilometer pipeline in the Baltic Sea that had already been built due to the Russian military attack on Ukraine. .

Owned by Gazprom

Nord Stream 2 is owned by the Russian state gas company Gazprom. Half of the $11 billion (nearly €10 billion) project was funded by energy and oil giants Shell, OMV, Engie, Uniper and Wintershall DEA. With the pipeline across the Baltic Sea, Russia wanted to double the capacity of natural gas shipments to Germany. Nord Stream 2 was completed, but was discontinued by the German government due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

According to previous information, OMV financed about 730 million euros for the line, which cost about 9 billion euros. CEO Alfred Stern said recently that OMV had already received its first loan payments last year. OMV recently deemed it unnecessary to consume.