The US Senate will consider a sanction bill to stop Nord Stream 2

The US Senate will consider a sanction bill against the companies involved in the construction of Nord Stream 2. Senators Ted Cruz, Jean Shaheen, John Barasso and Tom Cotton filed the document on Monday

The US Senate will consider a sanction bill against the companies involved in the construction of Nord Stream 2.

Senators Ted Cruz, Jean Shaheen, John Barasso and Tom Cotton filed the document on Monday.

The bill targets provision of certain technology and services which are critical for the completion of the project, including, for example, deep-water pipelaying.

Unlike Article 232 of CAATSA, these sanctions will not cover other infrastructure projects where Western companies might have interest.

These sanctions are not intended to harm companies from the EU and are fully in line with the spirit of the transatlantic cooperation between the USA and Europe. As recently as in March, the European Parliament has adopted a resolution calling for a cancellation of Nord Stream 2 because of its obvious political nature and its negative effect on the European energy security.

The proposed measures will help to prevent the concentration of delivery routes of Russian under Gazprom’s control. Following the interruption of gas supply to Europe by Russia in 2009, EU member states invested much effort in the construction of interconnectors and making the use of existing infrastructure more efficient. The cancellation of Nord Stream 2 will protect this fragile progress in merging fragmented European markets.

The completion of Nord Stream 2 poses serious threats to European consumers. If Nord Stream 2 is launched, it will replace the traditional routes of Russian gas supply not only in Ukraine but also in the EU. This would force a majority of European countries which rely on Russian gas to invest hundreds of millions of Euros into building new pipelines to connect to Gazprom’s new infrastructure. These costs would unavoidably be passed on to European consumers. Thus the launch of Nord Stream 2 would make Russian gas more expensive to Europeans.

The sanctions, if adopted, will enable Gazprom to abandon spending on political projects outside Russia and to focus on modernizing the gas transmission infrastructure within Russia. The recent surge in accidents and emergencies in Gazprom’s domestic gas transmission network is already causing concern among the company’s European counterparts.

It is important that the bill is bi-partisan. Naftogaz held intensive consultations with American partners when they were preparing the bill.

“We are grateful to the authors of the bill and our American partners for their consistent support of Ukraine and their attention to the European energy security”, commented Andriy Kobolyev, CEO of Naftogaz.

The company hopes that the majority of senators will support the bill in the near future.



Communications Department
NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine


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