Germany’s second largest electricity company, RWE, dealt a blow to Nabucco West, after it announced on 3 December it is selling its shares in the pipeline project. RWE said that its main interest in Nabucco West was to bring additional long-term gas transit streams to Germany, adding that the project does not serve this purpose because major gas supplies “could no longer be guaranteed.”
RWE was hit by Germany’s decision, following Japan’s March 2011 Fukushima accident, to phase out its entire nuclear power by 2022. This involved shutting down eight nuclear power plants in 2011. Amid depleted cash flow RWE decided to cut down its exposure on projects of high cost and uncertain medium-term value. (CONTINUED - 288 WORDS)
