The energia.rp.pl website reported it was not known what specific measures the US would take, adding that the sanctions move was designed to protect Europe's energy security.
The website cited Germany’s Bild newspaper as reporting earlier this month that the sanctions were to hit companies that provide ships which lay pipes, the firms’ bosses, and probably also Western partners involved in Russian pipeline projects.
They face a ban on doing business in the United States and having their assets frozen in America, according to energia.rp.pl.
The Financial Times reported on its website that US lawmakers on Monday reached agreement on the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, which includes a measure to punish companies involved in both Nord Stream 2 and Turk Stream, a Russian pipeline that crosses the Black Sea to Turkey.
The 1,200-kilometre Nord Stream 2 pipeline is expected to have the capacity to send around 55 billion cubic metres of Russian natural gas a year directly to Germany under the Baltic Sea, while bypassing the Baltic states, Poland and Ukraine.
Warsaw and Washington have both strongly criticised the project amid concerns that the pipeline will make the European Union more dependent on Russian gas.
US President Donald Trump was cited as saying in June that Nord Stream 2 "really makes Germany a hostage of Russia if things ever happen that were bad."
He added, as quoted by the Reuters news agency at the time: “We’re protecting Germany from Russia and Russia is getting billions and billions of dollars from Germany."
US Vice President Mike Pence warned earlier this year that America “cannot ensure the defence of the West” if its allies grow dependent on Moscow as a result of projects such as Nord Stream 2.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said last May that Nord Stream 2 was “a new hybrid weapon” aimed at the European Union and NATO.
(pk)
Source: PAP