The winding up applies retroactively from Jan. 1, dissolving an entity set up early last year to pursue and accelerate certification of infrastructure that was meant to carry Russian gas to Europe.

Germany's energy regulator the Bundesnetzagentur did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Russia's Gazprom completed Nord Stream 2, which was designed to double the flow of Russian gas direct to Germany, in 2021 but it did not go on stream after relations with Moscow broke down over Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

As-yet unexplained explosions happened on the parallel Nord Stream 1 pipeline and one line of the twin-track Nord Stream 2 in Swedish and Danish waters in September 2022.

(Reporting by Matthias Williams and Vera Eckert;Editing by David Goodman and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)