According to White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the US presidential administration has clearly signaled that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is a bad deal.
The White House declined on Wednesday to comment on the content of the State Department’s new report on the Nord Stream 2 project and the advisability of the US authorities applying sanctions against the additional number of its participants.
“[US President Joe] Biden’s administration has clearly signaled that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is a bad deal. This is a Russian geopolitical project that threatens the energy security of Europe, Ukraine, and NATO’s eastern flank allies and partners,” – said the deputy press secretary of the White House Karin Jean-Pierre at the briefing.
“I do not want to get ahead of the report. I will forward you to the State Department for details. Ultimately, this is his report, and they will discuss it,” added Jean-Pierre. This report of the US Foreign Office is for the US Congress. Axios news portal reported on Tuesday that the US administration has refused to impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG, the operator of Nord Stream 2, and its chief executive, Matthias Warnig.
Washington openly opposes the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and is making active efforts to block this project primarily with a view to striking Moscow’s interests and supporting Ukraine as a country through which Russian natural gas flows to Europe. In addition, many experts point out that the United States is trying to “push” in this way the supply of its liquefied natural gas to the European market, which is much more expensive than the Russian pipeline gas. The legislation adopted in the United States over the past few years provides for the possibility of applying unilateral restrictive measures, among other things, against firms participating in the Nord Stream 2 project.
The latter involves the construction of two lines of the gas pipeline with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters. meters of gas per year from the Russian coast through the Baltic Sea to Germany. The throughput capacity of each of the two lines is 27.5 billion cubic meters. m per year. The new gas pipeline will double the capacity of the first Nord Stream, the route of which will largely be repeated. The operator of the gas pipeline construction project is Nord Stream 2 AG, whose sole shareholder is Gazprom.