The Russian pipeline Nord Stream 2 is planned as an analogue of Nord Stream, a failed gas export destination. According to Gazprom, the new gas pipeline, just like the existing one, will connect Russia and Europe directly with European consumers: «This is especially important in the context of falling gas production in Europe and growing demand for its imports». Today, the conflict between the United States, Germany and Russia over the expediency of transporting Russian gas to European countries remains topical.
After a one-year break from December 11, 2020, work in the territorial waters of Germany resumed. And already from January 15, 2021, they began to lay pipes in Danish waters. According to Elena Burmistrova, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Board and General Director of Gazprom Export, the completion date for the construction of the offshore section depends on a number of conditions, in particular the weather.In December 2020, incumbent U.S. President Joseph Biden signed a document to distribute the budget for 2021, including provisions to tighten U.S. sanctions against Russia, including Nord Stream 2 pipelines, which were more than 90% complete, and Turkish Stream. This is reported on the website of the U.S. Treasury Department.
This story has been repeated since the first sanctions were imposed in 2019.
Earlier, at the end of 2019, due to the U.S. Sanction, Nord Stream 2 was suspended. Swiss company Allseas suspended work in Denmark and withdrew all its vessels that built the pipeline.
For 2019, gas from the EU via the Nord Stream export route in accordance with a five-year agreement signed in 2019: «The fact that we have signed a five-year download-or-pay transit contract is an exceptional event in such conditions», — admitted Yuri Vitrenko, Naftogaz executive director a year ago.
But this year, Russia’s Gazprom received approval from Denmark and said it intends to continue construction despite the pressure of US sanctions.
The European Parliament wants to demand that the EU immediately stop the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline due to the arrest of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Spiegel writes with reference to the draft resolution.
The fundamental figure in this story is German Chancellor Angela Merkel, on January 30 she called on EU countries not to follow the US sanctions, pointing to the intervention of this state:
«The point is not that there is no relationship between the United States and Russia in the oil sector, for example. We need to consider all this as a whole, talk to each other, is there a desire to trade gas with Russia, and what level of dependence will be acceptable. I consider these extraterritorial sanctions in any case a means that is inappropriate», — said Ms Merkel (quoted by Finanzen).
The fact is that gas prices in the EU countries have doubled, and the supply through Ukraine has dropped to 55 billion cubic meters per year, when in February 2019 exports amounted to about 200 cubic meters.
The head of the board of directors of Rosneft and the head of the shareholder committee of Nord Stream AG, Gerhard Schroeder, said that Nord Stream 2 is important for Germany to ensure energy security:«If we stop construction, then from the point of view of energy policy, we will cut the branch on which we sit», — said Schroeder in a conversation with the Rheinische Post.
The construction of “Nord Stream — 2” is advantageously for Russia and Germany, that’s why the construction is planned to be completed in next year. The conflict between countries has been relevant for a long time, since the Ukrainian sanctions for patience with Russia. On 2 of February became clear that the new administration of US is ready to conduct a dialogue on lifting sanctions on the gas pipeline “Nord Stream — 2”, the Handelsblatt agency reported.
As a compromise, Washington consider helping Germany to expand Ukraine’s gas infrastructure. According to RBC, Joe Biden is ready to remove the sanctions, if he receives guarantee for the implementation of gas export conditions to Ukraine.
