US to waive further Nord Stream 2 sanctions
A US lawmaker expressed frustration May 18 with a foreign policy track from the Biden administration that would avoid putting further pressure on Russia’s embattled Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project.
The Axios news service reported May 18 that the US State Department intended not to expand sanctions to include the Nord Stream 2 AG operating company, instead continuing to target only the Russian ships involved in laying the pipeline.
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Citing sources in the US State Department, Axios reported the Biden administration believed that imposing sanctions on German end users of Nord Stream 2's gas was the only way to thwart the project, which is now 95% complete. But Washington may want to avoid jeopardising its relationship with Berlin.
US Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican representing Nebraska and a member of the Senate select committee on intelligence, said president Biden was caving into the whims of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
“Allowing the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline would be a strategic mistake and the administration should rethink this,” he said.
At full capacity, Nord Stream 2 is set to carry up to 55bn m3/year of Russian gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany. But the US and some of its European allies argue it jeopardises European energy security and starves Ukraine of transit fees from the Soviet-era pipelines advancing west through its territory.
Speaking May 18 with his German counterpart, Heiko Maas, US secretary of state Anthony Blinken said Washington remained adamantly opposed to the natural gas pipeline.
“Secretary Blinken underscored the US commitment to work with allies and partners to counter Russian efforts to undermine our collective security, and in that vein, emphasised US opposition to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline,” a release from the State Department read.
The existing US sanctions regime aims to punish companies involved in Nord Stream 2's installation, certification and insurance. Around 20 companies, mostly insurers, have reportedly left the project in recent months in response to the threat.
In an interview with NGW in January, German gas lobby group Zukunft Gas had expressed doubts that Biden, fresh into his presidency, would want to alienate Germany: two German companies are helping to finance the project.
Zukunft Gas head Timm Kehler said: “He is a multi-lateralist, he will want the US to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement and work with European partners. For him it is a matter of priorities: he will watch the debate carefully and pick his fights. Nord Stream 2 will not be top of his list.”