Last year was the company’s tenth anniversary and Gerhard Schröder came. Nobody answers the phone anymore. Investors and operators of the blown up Nord Stream pipelines go underground. The billion-dollar ruin on the seabed is becoming a taboo subject. Visit to the company headquarters in Switzerland.
It’s bare here on Industriestrasse in Zug, one office complex nestles up against the other. World-class companies have their tax-efficient headquarters here in the small Swiss canton capital.
Glencore, for example, the world’s largest energy trader, controls its mines from Australia to Africa from here. In front of a slightly curved building with a large glass front hangs a company name in blue on a white background that almost everyone in Europe and many in Russia and the USA are saying every day: Nord Stream.
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The Zug location not only has tax advantages: Nord Stream should be located in a neutral country outside of the countries involved in the pipeline: Russia, Germany, France and the Netherlands.
Gerhard Schröder was last here last year, when the group celebrated its tenth anniversary. At that time, the former chancellor was chairman of the shareholders’ committee. Nord Stream is not to be confused with Nord Stream 2.
The company has been in bankruptcy since it became clear that the second pipeline would not go online. Number one, however, still exists and is not on any sanctions list.
The company is the builder and operator of the pipeline that blew up last week. Whoever calls the offices or rings the doorbell either ends up on the answering machine or is rejected.
The helplessness is palpable. Apparently nobody here knows how things could continue, which also applies to the five companies that are investors behind Nord Stream: Gazprom, Wintershall Dea, Eon via its subsidiary PEG, NV Nederlandse Gasunie and the French ENGIE.
The people of Zug put their first line into operation in 2011, and the second followed in 2012. Together, the two pipeline lines were able to transport up to 55 billion cubic meters of gas annually – enough to cover the energy needs of more than 26 million European households.
The pipeline was designed to operate for at least 50 years. It lasted a good ten years.
And now? Anyone who tries to talk to the German partners about this will get narrow-lipped answers. Wintershall and the other investors were not enthusiastic about the fact that Nord Stream in Zug was sitting at the same table as the outlawed Russian company Gazprom.
It is said that a lot has been done in the “circulation process” in the past few months. Those involved apparently avoided personal encounters at the conference table. Is the pipeline insured? What’s next?
There are no answers to questions of this kind. There is a written statement from Eon that leaves nothing to be desired in terms of triviality: “The operating company Nord Stream AG is responsible for operating Nord Stream 1. The possible reasons for the pressure drop at Nord Stream 1 are currently being investigated by the operating company. We cannot comment on speculation about possible causes.”
Before the explosion at the bottom of the sea, some reporters had better luck. One managed to stop by Nord Stream in Zug in August. The Swiss Sunday newspaper reported on the visit: The heart of the operation, the Main Control Center (MCC), is on the top floor.
Visitors would have to sign a statement stating that they would keep the information on the monitors confidential, not take photographs without permission, and behave correctly in an emergency. The entrance door is under video surveillance and can only be opened in combination with a badge and a code.
Unlike in the offices, masks were compulsory here to protect the dispatchers, who, like air traffic controllers, monitor the systems with concentration. Dispatchers are highly specialized professionals – a technical engineering degree is required, plus five years of professional experience.
The almost 60 employees in Zug come from 13 countries. The company language is English, although Russians are disproportionately represented. At least two dispatchers were always on duty around the clock.
They controlled the pressure in the tube, temperature, gas flow rate, physical load flow and much more. This is where the first alarm came from when the pipelines started leaking.
One of the screens showed all the larger ships that were currently traveling over the pipeline. An alarm was raised for abnormal behavior such as sudden changes in direction or speed, or when a ship disappeared from the screen. An anchor drop, for example, could damage the tube.
Around the corner from the address on Industriestraße in Zug, Nord Stream operates a second control center, the Backup Control Center (BCC). If there had been a cyber attack, the entire crew would have moved to reserve headquarters.
The headquarters was still busy last month, albeit with restrictions: the Sunday newspaper reports that employees were advised to enter the building through the back entrance as a precaution. Now that’s over too.
Naked masts stand where the flags of the operator countries once hung. It could be that another office property will soon come onto the market in Zug. One with history.
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On October 1, the minimum wage in Germany will rise to twelve euros – a whopping increase of 15 percent. And then there are more demands. Ironically, a prominent entrepreneur demands 20 euros. That should fuel inflation further.
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*The article “The whole disaster is revealed at the pipeline headquarters” is published by WirtschaftsKurier. Contact the person responsible here.
