The Swiss court granted Nord Stream 2 AG a moratorium on payments to creditors for another six months. What this could mean, expert Yuri Rikov told Radio Sputnik.

The bankruptcy procedure of the Nord Stream 2 operator has been extended for another six months, according to the website of the Swiss Official Gazette.

According to the published information, the court of the Swiss canton of Zug has granted the Nord Stream 2 AG project operator a moratorium on payments to creditors for another six months - until July 10, 2023.

In September the court already suspended the bankruptcy procedure of the operator until January 10, 2023.

At the end of September a gas leak was detected at Russian pipelines Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2. The Seismic Center of Sweden recorded underwater explosions in the emergency area. Later, it turned out that two strings of Nord Stream and one of the strings of Nord Stream-2 were damaged. The German and Danish authorities do not rule out that the accident was caused by sabotage.

The head of the Energy Department of the Institute of Energy and Finance, Yuri Rykov, shared his opinion on the reasons for the new postponement of the bankruptcy procedure of Nord Stream 2 AG on the air of Radio Sputnik.

"This procedure has already been postponed. It most likely means that they are trying to preserve the option of operation of Nord Stream and some use of these pipes. The most interested party - Germany - does not have enough gas. The plans announced by Berlin to completely abandon Russian energy carriers cannot be implemented at once, they will try to use something for a certain period of time... Maybe Germany is thinking in this direction," the expert said.

He assumed that Germany will want to use the undamaged Nord Stream-2 pipeline to import Russian gas.

"I do not rule out that the remaining string of Nord Stream-2 will still work, at least on a temporary basis, because Germany will not have enough gas in the foreseeable future," Yuri Rykov added.