NORD STREAM 2
NATURAL GAS
PIPELINE UPDATE
Russia and Germany
continue to ignore
US demands to block
the 90% completed
Nord Stream natural
gas pipeline from Russia
to Germany project.
Russia's Energy Minister
Alexander Novak
vowed that the
760-mile pipeline
will be launched before
the end of 2020,
in spite of
President Trump
signing sanctions
into effect
on the Friday
before Christmas,
targeting all
companies
involved with
laying the pipeline.
Swiss company
Allseas,
Nord Stream 2's
main contractor,
confirmed its workers,
and partner contractors
have laid down their tools.
Both Russia's Gazprom,
and the Nord Stream 2
project spokesman,
have promised to finish
the pipeline.
The Wall Street Journal
reported:
"Jens D. Mueller,
a spokesman
for Nord Stream 2’s
parent company,
said that the pipeline
would be finished
despite Allseas
pulling out its fleet."
Gazprom is retrofitting
its own ships to take over
most of the pipeline laying
that Allseas was overseeing.
Gazprom and five
European companies
lead the project:
-- France's ENGIE,
-- Austria's OMV,
-- UK-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell,
-- Germany's Uniper and
-- Germany's Wintershall
( along with dozens more
smaller contractors ).
RUSSIA - UKRAINE
AGREEMENT
Russia’s Gazprom
said last Friday
it has paid Ukraine
$2.9 billion to settle
a conflict that was
part of a wider
natural gas package
deal reached last week.
Russia and Ukraine
announced the terms
of a new gas transit deal.
Moscow will supply Europe
for at least another five years
via a pipeline passing though
Ukraine, after paying
a $2.9 billion settlement
to Kiev, to end a legal dispute.
Kiev, in exchange,
will drop a separate
legal claim.
The two nations
have had a very
rocky relationship.
So it was unknown,
until a few days ago,
whether or not
Russian natural gas
would be allowed
to pass through
pipelines that
are in Ukraine
after the
current contract
ended on
December 31, 2019.
pipelines that
are in Ukraine
after the
current contract
ended on
December 31, 2019.