MOSCOW, October 31. /TASS/. The main risks for the implementation of the Nord Stream 2 project are possible US sanctions and Denmark’s refusal to grant permit for the construction in its territorial waters, CEO of Austrian oil and gas company OMV Rainer Seele said during a conference call with investors.
"We are waiting the last remaining construction permit from Denmark. I am convinced that in the European Union all decisions and all applications you are filing a being worked on according to the law of different countries and that what is going to happen in Denmark. Therefore I am optimistic given the fact that the Nord Stream 1 pipeline was already approved in the Danish waters than we do have a very good chance to see that approval next year coming," he said.
"The second risk we do see in the project is of course that additional sanctions from the US are trying to impact the further financing of the project US sanctions are trying to Let’s wait and see We don’t what kind of sanctions are coming. That’s I think two main risks we have in the project. But it is diminishing month by month and we are going to continue to construct the pipeline. We have now 180 km and we continue to lay down the pipe. The job is going on well," head of OMV concluded.
The United States strongly opposes the new gas pipeline from Russia to Europe. Washington has repeatedly threatened to impose sanctions on the project, including its European participants. The Russian authorities view this as the US attempt to increase supplies of American liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the EU. American LNG is much more expensive than Russian pipeline gas.
The Nord Stream 2 project includes construction of two gas pipeline lines with a total capacity of 55 bln cubic meters of gas per year from the coast of Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany. The cost of construction is estimated at 9.5 bln euro, the launch of the pipeline is expected before the end of 2019.
Nord Stream 2 AG, a wholly owned subsidiary of Gazprom, is the project’s operator. Gazprom’s partners - Germany’s Wintershall and Uniper, Austria’s OMV, France’s Engie and Royal Dutch Shell (the UK Britain and the Netherlands) are to finance 50% of the project.
The pipeline will bypass transit countries - Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and other Eastern European and Baltic countries - through the exclusive economic zones and territorial waters of five countries - Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany.
Denmark is the only country that has not granted its permit for the construction of the pipeline in its waters. Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said that his country could pass a law that would ultimately allow the country to block or postpone the implementation of the Nord Stream-2 project on legal grounds. In its turn Gazprom said that it may use an alternative route, if Denmark does not grant the permit.