EU sees Nord Stream-2 as commercial, ready for South Stream talks

MOSCOW, Mar 18 (PRIME) -- The European Union sees Russia’s Nord Stream-2 natural gas pipeline project as commercial, but it must comply with the European legislation; the union is also ready to resume negotiations over the scrapped South Stream gas project if there are any proposals, E.U. ambassador to Russia Vygaudas Usackas told reporters on Friday.

Nord Stream-2 creates no new sources of supplies, but it is a commercial project and negotiations on it are held, he said, adding that it must comply with the E.U. third energy package and meet goals of the union.

The Nord Stream-2 project envisages construction of two lines of a gas pipeline with a capacity of up to 55 billion cubic meters of gas annually, running from the Russian shore to Germany under the Baltic Sea. Gazprom will hold 50% in the project, while E.ON, BASF, Royal Dutch Shell, and OMV will own 10% each, and Engie will get a 9% stake.

The E.U. is also ready for talks on the South Stream project if any proposals are made, Usackas said.

On Wednesday, Russian permanent representative to the E.U. Vladimir Chizhov said that Moscow may restart negotiations to build the South Stream gas pipeline. Earlier in March, Russian Deputy Energy Minister Yury Sentyurin said that Bulgaria wants to resume the South Stream negotiations.

In December 2014, Russia cancelled building the South Stream pipeline, which was supposed to carry Russian gas to Europe bypassing Ukraine, and decided to redirect all gas supplies to Turkey through the yet-to-be-built Turkish Stream pipeline.

Russia and Turkey agreed on the pipeline construction in December 2014, but talks stalled, as relations between the two countries worsened after downing of a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 plane by Turkish military forces in November 2015. Russian gas giant Gazprom plans to revise the terms of implementation of the Turkish Stream pipeline once relations between the countries are normalized.

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