PHOTO
Image used for illustrative purpose. Worker prepare pipes with concrete cover for the Nord Stream pipeline at a factory in Mukran on the Baltic island of Ruegen April 8, 2010. Nord Stream will have two pipelines, each with a capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters a year, on the Baltic Sea floor stretching from Russia's Vyborg near the Finnish border to Greifswald on Germany's coast. The 1,220 km-long (758-mile) Nord Stream pipeline will eventually pump 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Western Europe, bypassing traditional transit nations.
BRUSSELS- Germany's decision to indefinitely suspend Gazprom's GAZP.MM Nord Stream 2 pipeline does not affect gas prices, European Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager said on Wednesday.
"There is no gas in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. What has been stopped is the approval of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that it needs in order to get into operation, which means stopping the approval process can have no effect on gas prices," Vestager told a news conference.
"We stand fully by the German authorities," she said.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee) ((foo.yunchee@thomsonreuters.com; +32 2 287 6844; Reuters Messaging: foo.yunchee.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
