Russia Warns New U.S. Sanctions Threaten Gas Supplies To Europe

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)
http://www.thegwpf.com

Russia’s state-run gas monopoly Gazprom has warned that new U.S. sanctions on Russia pose a threat to Europe’s gas supply.

Viktor Zubkov, chairman of the company’s board of directors and the Kremlin representative, was speaking in Vienna Wednesday, two days after the U.S. introduced new sanctions on Russia.

Zubkov, who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and serves as his representative for cooperation with the 11 nations of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, said Washington’s actions could impact Gazprom’s projects in Europe.

“We believe the most important project for Austria, Europe and Russia to be Nord Stream 2,” Zubkov said, referring to Gazprom’s controversial major pipeline project through northern Europe.

The pipeline is set to start supplying Europe with gas in 2019, and is a flagship project for the Kremlin-controlled gas giant. New U.S. sanctions indirectly target the project by restricting companies investing in oil and gas pipelines, making them a potential concern for the pipeline’s European partner corporations. Anglo-Dutch group Royal Dutch Shell, Austria’s OMV, France’s Engie and Germany’s Uniper and Wintershall will work with Gazprom on the pipeline, collectively covering around half of the nearly $11 billion cost.

“Just as the project is well underway toward realization, with the basic engineering done and the the concrete piping being continuously laid, new insinuations begin—tougher sanctions against Russia’s energy sector,” Zubkov told state news agency Itar-Tass on Wednesday. “In Europe, this threatens the gas supply of the region.”

Zubkov accused the U.S. of “chasing purely economic interests, lobbying for American energy companies in Europe.”

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is highly controversial as it will not only increase Russia’s dominance of the European Union’s gas market, where Gazprom is the largest supplier, but also circumvent Ukraine. Currently, pipelines to Europe pass through Ukraine’s territory—wielding control over Russia’s gas exports has been a rare trump card Ukraine has been able to play in political disputes with Moscow.