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Europe to pay 30% more for US LNG, Russia’s EU envoy warns

There is just one LNG terminal on the east coast of the United States so far, the envoy said

MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/. The price of the US liquefied natural gas (LNG) for Europe will be 30% higher than Russian fuel at the very least, Russian Permanent Representative to the EU Vladimir Chizhov told TASS in an interview on Monday.

"The US CAATSA law has a paragraph demanding that the government do everything so that Nord Stream 2 does not happen. Why?" the Russian diplomat asks. "In the next paragraph it states that the US administration must work to broaden exports of US liquefied natural gas to EU countries," Chizhov notes.

"Is this the unfair competition? Definitely. This is unfair competition with improper means," the diplomat said. "In any case, even if the US has so much LNG that can be filled to the brim and have as many tankers as streetcars, the price will be at least 30% higher," the envoy stressed.

There is just one LNG terminal on the east coast of the United States so far, the envoy said. "Yes, six more are under construction but they will not be completed by the end of 2019. Three others are on the west coast but the price will be even higher when shipping from there," Chizhov explained.

Nord Stream 2 is a project to expand the existing Nord Stream main gas pipeline, connecting Russia and Germany along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, bypassing the transit states of Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and other Eastern European and Baltic countries. In general, the pipeline mirrors the Nord Stream route, and will pass through the exclusive economic zones and territorial waters of five states - Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. Its length will be more than 1,200 km, and its throughput capacity will be 55 bln cubic meters of gas per year. Nord Stream 2 is scheduled for commissioning by the end of 2019.