Minister: Russia sees Denmark’s permit for Nord Stream-2 in 2018

RUDONG COUNTY, Jiangsu Province, China, Jul 19 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Energy Ministry expects Denmark to issue its permit for construction of the Nord Stream-2 natural gas pipeline until the end of 2018, Minister Alexander Novak told reporters on Friday.

“We expect this from our partners in the second half of 2018…Everything that covers construction and preparation of necessary stages is going on in accordance with the schedule. It has no impact on the deadline,” he said.

The 55 billion cubic meter pipeline is to run under the Baltic Sea through territorial and/or exclusive economic zones of several states. Russia, Germany, Finland, and Sweden have already issued necessary permits, and Novak said previously he expected Denmark to issue its permit until the end of June alongside with Sweden.

Russian gas giant Gazprom will implement the project together with Germany’s E.ON and BASF, Royal Dutch Shell, Austria’s OMV, and France’s Engie.

RUSSIA-US DIALOGUE

Moscow and Washington could resume their energy dialogue, Novak said.

“We have a good instrument of cooperation – the Russia-U.S. energy dialogue – that has been inactive for several years. We could restore it, and we could discuss development of the situation at the world gas and oil markets among other things,” he said.

“The U.S. is an exporter of gas, and one of the most interesting topics here is how we should cooperate at gas markets taking into account locality of the markets, as we have separate Asian, European, and American gas markets. It would be good for us to cooperate with other exporters like the U.S. in a way similar to what we do within the Gas Exporting Countries Forum,” he said.

EXPORTS TO BELARUS

He also said that Russia has no plans to change the amount of oil exports to Belarus after the oil tax maneuver has been finished. “We see no problems here. All exports will be done in accordance with intergovernmental agreements,” he said.

Under the agreement, Russia’s duty-free oil exports to Belarus amount to 24 million tonnes per year. The accord also allows Minsk to re-export up to 6 million tonnes of the Russian oil per year.

The oil tax maneuver implies reduction of the oil export duty by 5 percentage points annually from the current 30% within six years starting from 2019. The mineral extraction tax (MET) on oil will be increased simultaneously within three years until 2021.

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