Official: Russia to finish Nord Stream-2 despite US sanctions

MOSCOW, Feb 10 (PRIME) -- Russia will finish construction of the Nord Stream-2 natural gas pipeline in spite of the U.S. sanctions, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin told PRIME on Monday.

“We are sure that construction of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline will be finished successfully in spite of the sanction pressure that the U.S. exerts. Russia’s Foreign Ministry will support that to the maximum possible extent,” he said.

Inclusion of the sanction articles against the Nord Stream-2 and the TurkStream pipelines into the U.S. defense budget for 2020 is direct interference in operations of the European businesses.

“The goal is not about providing assistance to the European energy security, which is only being strengthened by Russian export gas project. Their goal is to enforce the U.S. liquefied natural as on the European market. It is a blatant example of unfair competition,” he said.

The Nord Stream-2 project envisages construction of two lines of a natural gas pipeline with an annual capacity of up to 55 billion cubic meters, running from the Russian shore to Germany under the Baltic Sea. Russian gas giant Gazprom builds the pipeline together with Germany’s Uniper and Wintershall DEA, Royal Dutch Shell, Austria’s OMV, and France’s Engie.

In December 2019, the builder of the Nord Stream-2 suspended operations due to the threat of U.S. sanctions and withdrew all its vessels engaged in laying the pipeline from the Baltic Sea after U.S. President Donald Trump signed a defense budget envisaging spending on counteraction against Russia in various areas including sanctions against the Nord Stream-2.

On February 4, 2020, German business newspaper Handelsblatt reported that the U.S. Congress might approve new sanctions against the Nord Stream-2 in February or March targeting investors and the companies that receive gas through the pipeline if Russia starts trying to finish the pipe on its own.

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