On November 26, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had not heard of Russian oil and gas giant Gazprom's desire to sell Nord Stream 2 to US investors.
"I have not heard of any investor mobilizing the corridor to auction this important energy infrastructure. I have not heard of any Russian side, through Gazprom, wanting to sell it," TASS quoted Peskov as saying to reporters when commenting on the information that US investor Stephen P. Lynch expressed his desire to buy Nord Stream 2.
"There is also a key factor here: the gas pipeline is a tool, a device. And everything depends on reserves, on gas sources. Gazprom is a source of gas," Peskov said.
"I don't know if Gazprom wants to transfer gas transit assets to the US. I have not heard about it; perhaps we should ask the company itself" - the spokesperson pointed out.
The press secretary of the Russian President also stressed that Nord Stream 2 does not need to be rebuilt.
"This is a complete pipeline that can be put into operation immediately, as Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared. One can only wonder why the German leadership does not aim at the economic interests and economic feasibility of its industry, producers and citizens, but wants to buy gas at higher prices from other sources," the Kremlin spokesman added.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that US investor Stephen P. Lynch - who has spent decades doing business in Moscow - had reportedly asked US officials to allow him to bid for Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline if it were auctioned in a Swiss bankruptcy court.
Lynch applied for a license from the US Treasury Department in February. The license would allow Lynch to negotiate the acquisition of Nord Stream 2 AG - the Swiss-based operator of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Nord Stream 2 AG was sanctioned by the US after the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out.
The letter said that in June, a Swiss court extended Nord Stream 2 AG's bankruptcy proceedings until January 2025. If the company fails to restructure its debt by then - which is unlikely - it will face bankruptcy.
The construction of Nord Stream 2 was completed at the end of 2021. However, the gas pipeline with a designed capacity of 55 billion cubic meters per year has not been put into operation, as the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out in February 2022 and the project operator did not have time to ask for permission from the German government. Berlin has suspended the procedure.
On September 26, 2022, a series of explosions occurred on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea, and the culprit behind the Nord Stream sabotage is still unknown. However, one of the two branches of Nord Stream 2 was not affected.
