Nord Stream 2 Pipeline Project

In News

Recently, the US has approved the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project between Russia and Germany.

About 

• In December 2019, work on the project was suspended due to the threat of US sanctions.
  • In January 2021, the US  imposed sanctions on a Russian ship tasked with laying pipes for the project. 
• The US and Germany reached a deal on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

• The US-Germany deal lays out that if Russia attempts to “use energy as a weapon or commit further aggressive acts against Ukraine.
  • Germany will take steps on its own and push for actions at the EU, including sanctions to limit Russian export capabilities to Europe in the energy sector.

About the Nord Stream 2 pipeline

• In 2015, the Russian energy major Gazprom and five other European firms decided to build Nord Stream 2 which is valued at around $11 billion.
• The Approx 1,200-km pipeline will run from Ust-Luga in Russia to Greifswald in Germany through the Baltic Sea and will carry 55 billion cubic metres of gas per year.
• The under-construction pipeline will run along with the already completed Nord Stream 1 system, and the two together will supply an aggregate of 110 billion cubic metres of gas to Germany per year. 
  • The pipeline falls in the territory of EU members Germany and Denmark and is about 98% complete.

                                                     Image Courtesy: BBC

Controversies

• Since it was first planned, Nord Stream 2 has drawn criticism from the US as it believed that the project would increase Europe’s dependence on Russia for natural gas, thus emboldening its leader Vladimir Putin. 
  • Currently, EU countries already rely on Russia for 40 per cent of their gas needs.
• The project also has opponents in eastern Europe, especially Ukraine, whose ties with Russia have seriously deteriorated in the aftermath of the Crimean conflict in 2014.
• There is an existing land pipeline between Russia and Europe that runs through Ukraine.
  • Ukraine feels that once Nord Storm 2 is completed, Russia could bypass the Ukrainian pipeline, and deprive it of lucrative transit fees of around $3 billion per year. 
    • Ukraine also fears another invasion by Russia once the new pipeline is operational.
• Russia has dismissed these fears and  Germany also has solidly stood behind the Nord Stream 2, despite opposition from allies.

Source: IE