Gazprom CEO: Nord Stream 2 will be operational by January 2020
Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller is convinced that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will start supplying Europe with gas by January 1, 2020, Interfax reports.
“We are working according to the plans that were approved from the very beginning. The planned start for gas shipments is January 1, 2020,” Miller said.
Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin also said that he is prepared to work no matter how the situation develops with the US.
“We are working constantly under these circumstances. Our job is risk management,” Sechin noted.
Earlier, European Commissioner Günther Oettinger said that Nord Stream 2 cannot be stopped, despite the opposition from the US.
Roughly 370 km of pipe has already been laid.
The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is intended to span the Baltic Sea, connecting suppliers in Russia to consumers in Europe. It will have a total length of more than 1,200 km, and a capacity of 55 billion cubic meters per year. The project’s total cost is estimated at €10 billion.
Ukraine is convinced that the project will not only damage Ukraine’s economy, but will also have disastrous economic and political consequences for all of Europe.
In June, US President Donald Trump said that Germany is “hostage to Russia”. On the one hand, he said, Germany counts on the US to protect it from Russia, but on the other hand it, makes major oil and gas deals with Moscow, paying Russia billions of dollars every year.
German Minister of Economic Affairs Peter Altmaier said that he does not intend to back out of the Nord Stream 2 project. However, he emphasized that the laying of the gas pipeline can only take place if gas transit through Ukraine continues after 2019.
On December 12, European Parliament passed a resolution which calls for the termination of the Nord Stream 2 construction, stating that the project increases the EU’s dependence on Russian gas, threatens the internal EU market, and goes against the EU’s energy policy.
The US supported the resolution and urged Germany to heed its neighbors’ fears.