High gas prices and a lack of deliveries from Russia are making things difficult for Uniper. The gas giant is now tapping into its remaining liquidity reserves and taking out a loan of two billion euros. With that, the “facility has been completely exhausted,” the group announced.
The supplier Uniper, which has been hit by the gas crisis, is using a multi-billion dollar loan from the state-owned development bank KfW. “Today, Uniper drew on the existing KfW credit facility in the amount of two billion euros and thus fully utilized the facility,” the group announced. In doing so, Uniper was reacting to the ongoing supply disruptions to Russian gas and the associated developments on the energy markets. According to a Uniper spokesman, how long the money will last depends on the further development of the gas market. Uniper is in close contact with its banks and the federal government, he emphasized. The aim is to stabilize the company financially.
Uniper had agreed the credit line with the KfW banking group at the beginning of January in view of the looming Ukraine war and the associated fluctuations on the commodity markets. At the end of March, the group extended this until the end of April 2023 as a precaution.
The largest German gas importer, majority owned by the Finnish company Fortum, has fallen into crisis because Russia has cut gas supplies to Germany and Western Europe and prices on the gas market have risen enormously. The group has to make additional purchases on the expensive spot market in order to fulfill its obligations to its customers and is thus making high losses. In addition, there are currently no deliveries via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline due to maintenance work. Uniper had asked the federal government for help, and talks are currently underway about a rescue with state aid. What this can look like exactly and what role Fortum should play is still unclear.
