Nord Stream Issues Request for Proposals to Banks

Zug, 26 August 2009.

Nord Stream AG can today confirm that Request for Proposals (RFP) for the raising of senior debt for financing Phase 1 development have now been issued to the commercial bank market.

Nord Stream intends to finance Phase 1 of the Nord Stream pipeline with 30 percent equity from shareholders (Gazprom, BASF/Wintershall, E.ON Ruhrgas and Gasunie) and 70 percent senior debt. Nord Stream expects to procure the total debt requirement of approximately 3.9 billion euros for Phase 1 from a combination of the following:

A syndicated loan facility of up to 3.1 billion euros of finance covered by Export Credit Guarantee Programmes of Germany (Hermes) and Italy (SACE) as well as the Untied Loan Guarantee Programme of Germany.
A syndicated loan facility on an uncovered basis in an amount of up to 800 million euros.

Negotiations with Hermes, SACE and PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) (appointed official mandatory of the German Government for the Untied Loan Guarantee Programme) are well advanced and Nord Stream is confident of obtaining support from all of them. Contracts for all finance for Phase 1 are expected to be concluded by the end of this year.