Nord Stream: A View from Russia

Nord Stream: Energy Security or Greater Inderdependence?

Readers may find interesting the Russian based coverage of the launch of the Nord Stream pipeline.

Vedomosti hails “the great victory for Putin” after the official launch of the Baltic pipeline.

“From now on, Russia commands a surplus of gas transit capacity and it can  use it.”  

Poland, the Baltics, Ukraine - the paper lists the potential victims and predicts: “they will have to change their energy and budget policies”.

Gazeta daily refers to the Kremlin`s description of Nord Stream rationale, explaining that the main objective of the project  is to reduce Russia`s dependence on transit routes, “especially Ukraine with which there were several “gas conflicts” (…) because of Kiev demanding lower price for Russian gas”.

Vedomosti adds, that with the Nord Stream in operation, Russia can not only reduce a transit volume through Ukraine, but also cut off gas supply to Belarus.

“Besides, Russia will be able to cut off  Poland or Slovakia, for political purposes, while at the same time maintaining deliveries to the third countries” – notices the paper.

Vedomosti admits that “the cost of these political gains is very high”, with estimated price tag of 20 bln euro, half of which must be covered by Gazprom.

When second leg of the Nord Stream starts, total export capacity will rise to 225 bcm/year, while all Gazprom contracts reach  160bcm/year.  The daily warns, that the new offshore pipeline will work under pump-or- pay principle.

Russia “cuts a new window to Europe” writes Kommersant. The daily mentions South Stream project and notes that Nord Stream is the first direct line bringing gas from Russia to the Western Europe.