According to Polish website Energetyka24.com, German daily Tagesspiegel has reported that the German Ministry of Economy based its economic arguments in favour of the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline on data provided by a firm owned by Gazprom, the Russian state-owned gas giant involved in the project.
Energetyka24 said that the conclusion stems from an exchange between Germany’s Ministry of Economy and German deputy Oliver Krischer.
Krischer wanted to know whether Germany would be able to meet its gas needs without building the contested gas pipeline, according to the Polish website.
The German Ministry of Economy responded that the plans for the pipeline were based on an analysis drawn up by the Gazprom-owned Nord Stream 2 AG company in 2016 which envisaged an increase in European gas demand by 100 billion cubic metres a year, Energetyka24 reported.
Energetyka24 cited the ministry as saying that the analysis prepared by Nord Stream 2 AG was to be based on data from the European Union and the International Energy Agency.
Meanwhile, Agata Łoskot-Strachota from the Centre for Eastern Studies, a Warsaw-based think tank, said: “A lack of [Germany’s] own analyses on future gas demand, those commissioned by the German government, seems highly unlikely to me, and citing Nord Stream 2 AG's data puts specific officials in a rather poor light.”
Last month, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the United States is working to build a coalition of countries to stop the disputed Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from being completed.
“We hope the Nord Stream 2 pipeline won't be completed,” Pompeo said at the time.
The Americans have already slapped sanctions on the pipeline and are planning new moves against the controversial energy project opposed by Washington and Warsaw.
The gas link is close to completion and is due to start operating next year. But German politicians have suggested they could withhold support after the suspected poisoning of Alexei Navalny, a leading Kremlin critic who is now recovering after undergoing treatment in a German hospital.
The 1,200-kilometre undersea Nord Stream 2 pipeline is designed to have the capacity to send around 55 billion cubic metres of Russian natural gas a year directly to Germany, while bypassing the Baltic states, Poland and Ukraine.
Warsaw has vehemently opposed the project, saying it would pose a threat to Europe’s energy security by doubling Russia’s gas export capacity via the Baltic Sea.
(jh/pk)
Source: Energetyka24,PAP