MOSCOW, August 3. /TASS/. Opponents of the Nord Stream-2 project are not concerned about the energy security of Europe, they look after their own interests or try to harm Russia, said a commentary by the deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s information and press department, Anastasiya Fedorova.

"We and many of our partners in Europe see this project as extremely important from the point of view of supplying pipeline gas to the European Union, as European consumers’ demand for it will be only growing in the course of time due to a decline in own production in Europe as well as a stable demand for this energy resource," the diplomat said on Wednesday.

According to her, Nord Stream-2 is a purely commercial project. "In conditions when their liquefied natural gas (LNG) strongly loses out on price comparisons to Russian pipeline gas, they (American partners) have decided to resort to non-economic methods of fight for the European gas market," Fedorova said. "This is the main reason behind such strong resentment over Nord Stream-2 from the American Congress and the American gas lobby," she went on.

"Most cynical methods of unfair competition were brought into play, when the main task is to mire the rival and exert influence on the counterpart, including through sanction intimidation, with an aim to make him buy their more expensive product," the diplomat said. "However, the fact that changes to the market structure will change the price of gas going to the European Union, is hushed up," Anastasiya Fedorova stressed.

"We are confident that Nord Stream-2 opponents are by no means concerned about the energy security of Europe, they either look after their own profit, or are seeking to damage Russia," the diplomat said, adding that it could as well be "an attempt to kill two birds with one stone".

She also drew attention to the fact that politicians from a limited number of EU countries were attacking Nord Stream-2. "As far as we know, leading European energy companies think differently," she added.

"As for Ukraine, the concept of Nord Stream-2 construction does not envisage ending the transit of Russian gas through the existing pipelines," the diplomat pointed out.

About the project

The construction of the gas pipeline is planned to begin in 2018 to be over in later 2019. The 1,220 pipeline will run across the bottom the Baltic Sea from the Russian coast to Germany. The capacity of each of its two threads will be 27.5 billion cubic meters a year. The new pipeline, basically following the same route as Nord Stream, will double its capacity. The overall cost of the project is 9.9 billion euro.

Swiss Nord Stream 2 AG was established for the planning, construction and operation of the gas pipeline, which now belongs entirely to Gazprom.