US Sanctions on Nord Stream 2 Coming

United States Energy Secretary Rick Perry said on Tuesday that a sanctions bill putting onerous restrictions on companies involved in the Nord Stream 2 project would come in the “not too distant future”.

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project has come under fire from the United States and several eastern European, Nordic and Baltic Sea countries which fear it will increase the European Union’s reliance on Russian gas, Reuters reported.

“The opposition to Nord Stream 2 is still very much alive and well in the United States,” Perry told a briefing on a visit to Kiev for the inauguration of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

“The US Senate is going to pass a bill, the House is going to approve it, and it is going to go to the president and he is going to sign it that is going to put sanctions on Nord Stream 2.”

The Russia-led Nord Stream 2 consortium announced in 2018 that it applied to Denmark for an alternative gas pipeline route through the Baltic Sea that would avoid the Nordic state’s territorial waters.

Denmark is facing a dilemma on whether the project can be built near its Baltic coast and its parliament may pass legislation, allowing it to veto the Nord Stream 2 pipeline going through Danish territorial waters on security grounds.

Russia is keen to press ahead with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline since it has the potential to double its gas exports under the Baltic Sea to Germany, bypassing traditional routes through Ukraine with which it has poor relations.

The Danish government has come under fierce lobbying by Russia, EU allies and the US over the €9.5 billion (£8.5 billion) Nord Stream 2 project led by Gazprom and financed by five western firms.