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OMV hopes Nord Stream 2 will be completed despite US threats

"We have had deep trans-Atlantic friendship with the United States for decades. And friends should not make threats to each other," Seele said

VIENNA, March 20. /TASS/. The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project will hopefully be completed despite threats of US sanctions, said Rainer Seele, the CEO of Austrian oil and gas company OMV, which is Gazprom’s partner in the project.

"I hope for it [the project’s completion]. This project has huge significance for security of supplies to the European gas market, that is why Europe has the responsibility to make decisions," Seele said in an interview with the Saturday issue of the Wiener Zeitung newspaper, excerpts from which were published by the Austria Press Agency on Friday.

On March 18, the US Department of State warned members of the Nord Stream 2 project against resuming construction works and threatened them with sanctions.

"We have had deep trans-Atlantic friendship with the United States for decades. And friends should not make threats to each other," Seele said, commenting on the US stance.

The Nord Stream 2 project includes construction of two lines of gas pipeline with a total capacity of 55 bln cubic meters per year from the Russian coast through the Baltic Sea to Germany. The work was suspended in December 2019 after Swiss company Allseas refused to lay the pipes due to possible sanctions from the United States. But in December 2020, Nord Stream 2 AG resumed pipelaying, building a 2.6 km gas pipeline in the exclusive economic zone of Germany. The pipeline is currently under construction in Danish territorial waters.

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