The US State Department has warned European companies involved in the construction of the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline of the risk of sanctions. The ministry has approached the companies since the beginning of the year and made them aware of the possible consequences, as a spokesman for the Reuters news agency confirmed on Wednesday.
“We are trying to inform companies of the risk and urge them to withdraw before it is too late,” said a US government official.
Accordingly, the State Department could publish a report on Thursday or Friday about companies it believes will support the construction of the pipeline. This also includes those who offer insurance, help with the laying of the underwater pipes or check the construction equipment of the project. This could also include the insurer Zurich Insurance Group, said a government official. Zurich said it was obliged to “fully comply with all applicable sanctions provisions”.
OMV involved in the project
The laying work on the roughly 1,200-kilometer pipeline has been suspended since December 2019. The US has warned that Europe is too dependent on Russia. The Americans also want to expand their gas business in Europe themselves. Gas should flow through the pipeline from Russia to Germany and other countries. According to the consortium, around 120 kilometers of pipeline still have to be laid in Danish and a little over 30 kilometers in German waters.
The German energy company Uniper has not received any sanctions threats from the USA because of its involvement in the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. “There was nothing in my inbox, which I regularly empty,” said Uniper boss Andreas Schierenbeck of the Reuters news agency in an interview published on Thursday. In addition to the Austrian OMV, Wintershall DEA, Royal Dutch Shell and the French utility Engie, Uniper is one of the financial partners for the almost ten billion euro project.
“We stand by Nord Stream 2,” emphasized Uniper boss Schierenbeck. Nothing has changed about that. “We think it is positive that the work on the first line in Germany has now been completed and that work in Danish waters will start again in the next few days.” He assumes that the pipeline will be completed.
