BERLIN (Reuters) – Finnish group Fortum, majority shareholder of Uniper, is expected to help bail out the struggling energy supplier, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said.
Uniper made a bailout request to the German government on Friday, with its chief executive warning that losses from falling supplies from Russia and soaring gas prices could reach 10 billion euros this year .
Uniper “belongs to someone, someone who is solvent and who can provide support,” Robert Habeck, also energy minister, told Deutschlandfunk radio. “So it’s fair to consider models where owners also take on an obligation.”
While Russia blames the reduction in its gas exports on technical problems, the governments of Western countries claim that Moscow invokes false pretexts to avenge the sanctions imposed in response to the war in Ukraine.
Germany, very dependent on Russian gas, activated level 2 of its gas supply emergency plan three weeks ago, which allows it to allocate 15 billion euros of public money to buy gas elsewhere, in order to fill its tanks for this winter.
Robert Habeck warned that if gas prices continue to rise, however, this sum may not be enough.
(Reporting Markus Wacket, written by Thomas Escritt; Laetitia Volga, edited by)
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