The USA is strictly against the gas pipeline – and the threatened sanctions are having an effect.
The threats of sanctions by the USA against the German-Russian Baltic Sea gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 are having an effect: after considerable pressure from the government in Washington, at least 18 European companies have now ended their participation in the controversial project or have promised to withdraw, as stated in a report by the US State Department to Congress. The Austrian oil and gas group OMV is also involved in the financing of the gas pipeline.
According to the US, the companies include the German industrial service provider Bilfinger, based in Mannheim, and the Munich Re insurer Munich Re Syndicate Limited.
So far, the US has only imposed sanctions on the Russian company KVT-RUS, which operates the Fortuna lay-ship, because of Nord Stream 2 – the government of the Republican US President Donald Trump announced these punitive measures shortly before the end of her term in January. The company and the ship are also specifically mentioned in the new report. Contrary to expectations, other companies are not punished or threatened with punitive measures.
Republicans had therefore sharply criticized the administration of the new Democratic US President Joe Biden. Senator Ted Cruz said at the weekend: “The Biden administration is signaling that it is ready to allow the pipeline to be completed, with catastrophic consequences for American national security and the energy security of our European allies.” The US State Department forwarded the report to Congress last Friday, but has not yet made it public. The report was available to the dpa in Washington on Monday.
Most of the companies that have ended or are ending their participation in Nord Stream 2 are insurance groups, according to the report. Most of these companies are based in the UK. The Swiss Zurich Insurance Group and the Axa Group, based in Paris, have also ended their work on Nord Stream 2, according to the US State Department.
The report signed by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also explicitly addresses Germany's position. “The German government is still fully behind the Nord Stream 2 project,” it says there. The German government emphasizes that it is a necessary economic project. “Germany firmly rejects US sanctions as an attack on the sovereignty of Germany and the EU.”
State Department spokesman Ned Price said Monday that the withdrawal of numerous companies from the project shows that the government's actions are working. He stressed that the US kept up the sanctions threats. “We made it clear that companies risk penalties for participating in Nord Stream 2.” But one will continue to consult with allies and not surprise them with unsolicited actions.
The United States are storming the project because they fear that their partners in Europe are too dependent on Russia. At the end of 2019, construction work on the pipeline was stopped shortly before completion after the US had enacted an initial sanctions law (Peesa) against the special ships that laid the pipes. However, US critics argue that the US wants to sell its own gas in Europe.
Lithuania's Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis proposed a construction freeze on Nord Stream 2 until the Russian parliamentary elections. “Let's give Vladimir Putin the opportunity to hold a free State Duma election this autumn with the participation of the opposition. Until then, let's stop the Nord Stream 2 pipeline,” he said in a message from the Foreign Office in Vilnius after the EU foreign ministers' meeting quoted. Lithuania, like the US and some EU countries, is against the pipeline.
