Rhetoric is intensifying in Moscow against alleged attempts by the US to stall the Gazprom-led Nord Stream 2 gas export pipeline from Russia to Germany as Washington seeks to boost its own liquefied natural gas exports.
Viktor Zubkov, chairman of Russian state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom, has criticised the US for promoting the country's LNG supplies to Europe to replace pipeline gas from Russia.
Russian Energy Minister Aleksander Novak has also accused the US of threatening Europe with a rise in duties to “sabotage” Nord Stream 2.
“It is no secret the Americans are proposing, essentially blackmailing, threatening to introduce duties on the supply of European cars” in case Germany and Austria continue with their support for the project, Novak said an industry event in Moscow on Wednesday.
Speaking at the same event, Zubkov also hit out at procrastination by Denmark's regulatory authorities in granting a construction permit to lay Nord Stream 2 across the country's maritime exclusive economic zone (EEZ), claiming the country had given no "true reasons" for the delay.
Zubkov said the lack of such approval will not halt the construction of Nord Stream 2, as the pipeline route will be amended to avoid crossing Denmark’s EEZ.
However, he has acknowledged that opting for such an alternative route will be “expensive and delay the project”.
Gazprom has now laid 2042 kilometres of the second Nord Stream twin gas pipeline in the waters of the Baltic Sea, or 83% of the total route.
The gas giant has hitherto strongly rejected the possibility that it would be unable to complete Nord Stream 2 as scheduled by the end of this year due to the lack of the Danish permit.
Besides critical pronouncements from Russian officials, the Nord Stream 2 operating consortium has also threatened to take Denmark to court for its recalcitrance in issuing the permit, which it insists is a mere formality that cannot be refused.
Opting for an alternative route to bypass Denmark would undermine Gazprom’s tough stance in upcoming talks with Ukraine’s state gas importer and distributor Naftohaz Ukrainy. The two sides have to decide upon the fate of Russian gas transit flows to Europe after 1 January 2020 when the current transit agreement between the two companies expires.
Gazprom has repeatedly said that Nord Stream 2 will bypass Ukraine and enable Russia to deliver gas to European customers in the event Gazprom and Naftohaz are unable to agree on gas transit terms.
Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell, which is a financial investor in Nord Stream 2, has meantime asked the US Congress not to enact proposed sanctions against the project.
"If the current legislation under consideration in the US Congress is passed, it will affect all of the companies involved with the project, including Shell. We therefore respectfully urge legislators not to enact these sanctions," head of Shell's business in Russia, Cederic Cremers, said in emailed comments to news wires.
Shell and other consortium partners Germany's Uniper and Wintershall, France's Engie and Austria's OMV have together ploughed hundreds of millions of euros in investment into Nord Stream 2 in the last two years.
