Gazprom Falls $3.2 Bn on EU Nord Stream-2 Decision

Gazprom’s shares are ending the third week in a row with a fall against the background of a sharp reduction in gas demand in Europe and the adoption of a gas directive in Brussels, due to which the future of the Nord Stream-2 project is under threat, writes finanz.ru.

At the Moscow Exchange bidding, Gazprom’s securities fell to the level of 153.01 rubles, a minimum since the beginning of the year.

In February, they decreased by 5.6%, almost three times ahead of the MICEX index in terms of decline. The capitalization of the “national wealth” has decreased by 211 billion rubles, or 3.2 billion dollars.

Gazprom is trading worse than the market, as pressure on Nord Stream 2 is growing, the IFC Solid analyst Vadim Kravchuk said.

On February 20, the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the European Union approved the text of amendments to the gas directive, which requires that offshore pipelines comply with the same standards as onshore: one company (in this case, Gazprom) is forbidden to be both a seller of gas and a pipe owner, and access to the gas pipeline should be also obtained by independent suppliers. And if the first requirement can be formally fulfilled by creating a separate structure, then the second cannot: only Gazprom, as the only company that has the right to export gas, can supply gas at the Russian end of the pipe.