Nord Stream 2: EU energy companies warn against US sanctions

Gazprom's European partners investing in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline have demanded that the US stops threatening the Russian project with sanctions.

The Nord Stream 2 project was thrown into uncertainty last month after the US Senate voted to include the pipeline in new sanctions against Moscow.

Isabelle Kocher, Chief Executive of the French utility Engie, told the Financial Times that she hoped EU leaders had used the just concluded G20 summit in Hamburg to “say to the US government and President the extent to which this idea is incomprehensible”. 

Engie, Britain’s Royal Dutch Shell, Austria’s OMV and German companies Uniper and Wintershall have agreed to fund half the cost of the €9.5bn Nord Stream 2 pipeline being built by Gazprom between Russia and Germany.

“The principle of American sanctions [being levied] on a project that is not in the US, that does not involve US actors, that is not in dollars – the Europeans are right to mobilise on this subject,” said Ms Kocher. “It is an interference in the affairs of European countries that is unacceptable.” 

The Senate bill still needs the support of the House of Representatives.