The proposed US sanctions aimed at Nord Stream 2 (NS2) are yet another hurdle in the way of the controversial Russian gas pipeline for Europe. But they are not an attempt by the Americans to prevent Gazprom from supplanting them as a supplier, says Alan Riley at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center, because NS2 will deliver no more gas than the current route via Ukraine, just replace it. He argues the sanctions are to constrain Russiaâs ability to turn off the taps for political reasons, and those threatening to sue the EU into getting NS2 back on track not only have a weak case, but are missing this vital point.
Rainer Seele, the chief executive officer of Austrian energy company OMV and corporate ally of Gazprom, recently called on Europe to defend itself from the proposed US sanctions aimed to stop Nord Stream 2. It is far from clear to which âEuropeâ Seele is referring. In December 2018, the European Parliament voted 433 to 105 in favour of a resolution calling for the construction of Nord Stream 2 to be cancelled. Furthermore, in February 2019, twenty-four of the twenty-eight member states were prepared to vote to extend the 2009 EU Gas Directive formally to import pipelines such as Nord Stream 2, creating uncertainty in the current financing, business structure, and commercial logic of the project.
Germany had too few votes from other member states to block the amendment to the Directive. It ended up bargaining with Paris for convoluted face-saving wording to cover up the fact that it had to substantively accept the application of the Directive to import pipelines.
As a consequence, Nord Stream 2 is now struggling with how to deal with the application of the Gas Directive. It faces, for example, having to unbundle the pipeline. Gazprom, which has a 100 percent shareholding in Nord Stream 2, can either own the pipeline or provide the gas; in any event, access to the pipeline will have to open up via the EUâs third-party access rules and a transparent cost reflective tariff regime would have to be applied.
Gazpromâs control of the tap
In addition, Gazprom would face having to endure a security of supply certification process. The supply certification process, mandated by Article 11 of the Gas Directive, requires an assessment to be made about whether or not an EU owner could undermine the supply security of the European Union. According to Larsson and Hedenskog, Russia has deployed coercive energy policies to Central and Eastern European (CEE) states over fifty times between 1991 and 2006. Such energy policies include supply cuts, coercive pricing policies, and sabotage.
Gazprom was the dominant actor in sixteen of these cases. Even after the CEE states joined the EU, they have still been threatened with supply cut offs. This happened most notably in 2014 and 2015, when Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia shipped gas to help Ukraine, and Gazprom threatened to reduce gas supplies to those countries and then took steps to do so. As a consequence, Nord Stream 2 would face considerable practical and legal obstacles in obtaining certification under Article 11.
Legal threats
The degree of Gazpromâs distress can be seen in the April 12, 2019, letter from Nord Stream 2 Chief Executive Officer Matthias Warnig to Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission. Warnig threatened to sue the EU under the Energy Charter Treatyâs investment protection regime. He alleged that the adoption of the Amended Directive targeted the pipeline in a discriminatory fashion. The letter argued that Nord Stream 2 had been deliberately targeted by the legislation and was the only pipeline subject to the new law where a final investment decision had already been made.
This âlegitimate expectationâ argument is weak because Nord Stream 2 started constructing the pipeline even without having all the route permits in place for the pipeline; for example, there is no Danish permit yet in place. Nord Stream 2 is locked in litigation with the Danish Energy Agency over which route should be assessed under its permitting process. Hence, Nord Stream 2 does not currently even have a complete definitive route.
If Warnig does follow through with yet more litigation, the European Commission is likely to respond robustly. The Commission will be able to point out how irregular it is in normal commercial practice to proceed with an investment without all the route permits in place. It is also likely to argue that commercial operations bear significant risks when investing in projects for which routes have not yet been approved via the permitting process.
Arguments in support of Nord Stream 2 suggest that, as the pipes for Nord Stream 2 have been constructed in German waters, the pipeline is consequently âcompleteâ in EU territory, even if it is not complete elsewhere (only 40 percent of the pipeline has actually been laid so far). The argument here is that, as the German part of the pipeline was completed before May 23, i.e., before the amendment to the Directive came into force, the full force of the provisions of the Gas Directive does not apply. This argument is likely to be dismissed by EU supreme court judges in Luxembourg as overly formalistic, if it ever reaches their court, since it overlooks the fact that the German part of the pipeline, as a pipeline capable of taking flows of gas, was not operational on the day the Directive came into force.
A substantial majority of member states have already dealt a significant blow to Nord Stream 2 through both the European Parliamentâs support for the pipelineâs cancellation and support for the amendment to the Gas Directive. This is the true European response to Nord Stream 2. In reality, Seele and his German allies represent only a small subset of European opinion.
U.S. pipeline sanctions against Russia
In this context, the proposed targeted sanctions contained in the US Congressâ Protecting Europeâs Energy Security Act are appropriate and would receive substantial support from the twenty-four EU nations that were prepared to support the amendment to the Gas Directive. The core element of that Act would target vessels laying pipes at depths of 100 feet or more for the construction of Russian energy export pipelines. Sanctions could be imposed on foreign persons who have sold, leased, provided, or facilitated the provision of such vessels for the construction of Russian export pipelines. This is a laser-focused sanction regime that would make it much more difficult to continue with the pipe-laying process for both Nord Stream 2 and Turk Stream 2.
Some experts suggest that the Act could impact Western corporate allies of Nord Stream 2 such as OMV, Wintershall, and Shell. It is difficult to see how this could be the case. With Nord Stream, Western energy companies were shareholders in the company. As direct shareholders, Section 2 would potentially affect them. However, Nord Stream 2 is wholly owned by Gazprom and Western corporate allies only raised some of the funds for the project. It is therefore doubtful that the proposed Actâs Section 2, which applies to âforeign persons that have sold, leased, provided, or facilitated the provision of those vessels for the construction of such pipelines,â extends to the Western corporate allies.
The technical construction of Section 2 focuses on the direct provision of support for vessels, and pipeline laying. Therefore, involvement of Western corporate allies looks too remote. In any event, a definitional provision could be added to the Act to make it clear that Section 2 does not apply to Western corporate allies that are raising funds for the project.
Seele also is not supportive of the US sanctions, on the grounds that they are a US attempt to increase its access to European gas markets by blocking Russian access. However, this argument is difficult to sustain since Nord Stream 2 will bring no new gas into EU marketsâit will merely switch gas supplied via the Ukrainian Brotherhood pipeline network into Nord Stream 2, just as with Nord Stream.
Bypassing Ukraine
Western energy companies supporting Nord Stream 2 argue that the pipeline is not a direct substitution for the Ukrainian gas and that some gas transit through Ukraine will still be necessary. It is true that Gazprom could still see a need for gas flowing via Ukraine and down the Balkan gas corridor, as Nord Stream flows would have difficulty reaching that part of the European network. However, it is planning to build Turk Stream 2, which could replace the Balkan gas flows via Ukraine. A further difficulty with that argument is that when the opportunity has presented itself, Gazprom has sought to reduce the amount of gas going through the Ukrainian transit route and increase flows through Nord Stream.
This was the case in 2016 when a new Commission exemption decision permitted Gazprom to use most of the Ostsee-Pipeline-Anbindungsleitung (OPAL) connecting pipeline, which takes gas from Nord Stream. The immediate effect was to see an increase in the flow of gas through Nord Stream and a decrease in gas through the Ukrainian pipeline. As a result, given the inherently diversionary nature of the Nord Stream 2 project and the probability that it will not provide any additional gas supplies, US sanctions in respect of Nord Stream 2 are unlikely to increase the access to EU markets for US liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Europeâs domestic gas production
Another questionable argument lays out the decrease in natural gas production in Europe as a justification for Nord Stream 2 and a reason why the pipeline should not be sanctioned. It is true that EU domestic natural gas production has fallen. With the closure of the Groningen field, Western Europeâs largest onshore field, by 2030, the EU will face a direct loss of 50 bcm of gas production. However, deploying Groningen as a justification for Nord Stream 2 is also undermined by the reality, as explained above, that Nord Stream 2 will provide no new gasâit will simply shift from the Ukrainian pipeline network to Nord Stream 2.
Furthermore, Nord Stream 2 goes nowhere near Western Europe, which is the European region seeing the greatest decline in domestic gas production. Nord Stream 2âs landing point is Greifswald on the northeast German coast. Its connecting pipeline, the EuropĂ€ische Gas-Anbindungsleitung (EUGAL), has a carrying capacity equal to the total capacity of Nord Stream 2 (55 bcm) and will take Nord Stream 2âs gas flows through eastern Germany to Poland and the Czech Republic. In other words, gas flows from Nord Stream 2 go in the wrong direction to address declining domestic natural gas production in Western Europe, even if Nord Stream 2 provided additional supplies of gas to the EU market, which it does not.
EU member states have already shown willingness to take measures against Nord Stream 2 in the shape of European Parliament support for the cancellation of the pipeline and the adoption of the amendment to the Gas Directive. The US Congress can now take an additional step that will underpin rather than undermine the transatlantic relationship: deploying the targeted sanctions proposed in the Protecting Europeâs Energy Security Act to help secure the collective interests of the EU and the United States and stop Nord Stream 2.
***
Dr. Alan Riley is a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center and has advised PGNIG (Polskie GĂłrnictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo SA, a Polish state-controlled oil and gas company) and Naftogaz, the national oil and gas company of Ukraine.
This article was written for the Atlantic Council Global Energy Centerâs blog, EnergySource and is published with permission
Bas Gresnigt says
Another pipeline not passing Belarus or Ukraine is needed and justified as those countries showed to be unreliable in the past.
– Belarus black mailed Gazprom threatening to close the pipe if it wouldn’t get gas against very low price;
– Ukraine did the same and stal gas when no agreement with Gazprom. It ended in long black-outs in SW-EU in winter…
Both countries now get very high rights-of-way fees; partly direct, partly indirect via extreme low gas prices. Those increase gas prices for western countries being effectively an unacceptable subsidy to Ukraine and Belarus.
So western gas utilities (100% state owned Dutch Gasunie, Belgian/French Engie, and two German companies) invested in Nord Stream 2 (NS2) and hold 49%. Just to ensure a reliable supply for an acceptable low price.
It would be political stupid to prolong NS2; imagine the outcry if Gazprom would do that.
When there is not enough transport capacity, it’s politically much easier that western companies install the additional pipelines going through the EU.
So the idea that “gas flows from Nord Stream 2 go in the wrong direction” is wrong.
US sanctions are mainly, if not solely, motivated by the wish to open an export market for US gas. US gas is more expensive than the gas transported via NS2, so it has little chance…
NS2 will bring cheaper gas because it avoids the high rights-of-ways (direct and indirect) countries ask. Furthermore NS2 also implies extra transport capacity hence increased delivery security.
Alas many countries in the EU have no interest in improving gas supply security. E.g. because they will miss important rights-of-way fees (e.g. Poland). But those interests are less important than increased delivery security of cheap gas.
ĐĄĐ”ŃгДĐč says
Bas,
thanks for the clear statement and courage to write it here.
@@@@ Alan ///.self.