Post by bricegu on Oct 9, 2018 9:20:46 GMT 1
In spite of the president Trump's refuse imposing sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 building companies, it is early days. The White House policy has been so unpredictable that you could read angry tweet by @realdonaldtrump stigmatizing the invertebrate EU for inability to kick the cheap Russian gas habit and start buying 'slightly overpriced' (you should to pay extra for a trade name, all in all) LNG from the democratic ideal.
In the judgment of the US leadership, a refuse from the Nord Stream-2 construction should cause reduce of Russian impact at the European energy market and retaining Ukrainian transit, which is already a key condition of the Nord Stream 2 existence. Guarantor of its fulfillment is German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Her word has been much more reliable than statements of the US president in office.
It stands to mention that, even by a long stretch of imagination, Ukraine is far from faithworthy transit country. The European Union members had an opportunity to get that unpleasant repeating experience during past cold winters whereupon it turned out that Kiev officials surreptitiously had been filling their gas tanks with European gas. That caused huge short-deliveries in France, Italy, Germany and other countries. Meanwhile Moscow struck an attitude threatening to block further gas supplies.
In this situation appearance of another gas pipe connecting a buyer with a seller without any middleman will be most sane financial and economic global initiative. Of course, some countries would bear certain losses. Thus, Poland and Romania will suffer for they've been playing role of a specific distributing channel for Russian gas coming from Ukraine. However, those damages will be rather reputational. Bucharest and Warsaw will get their gas, anyway.
At the same time abandoning the Nord Stream 2 project will lead to certain economic losses of the EU members and series of European companies, such as E.ON, BASF, Wintershall, Uniper, OMV, Shell. These are not only a great expense for providing various expert examinations and plans developing, but also the phasing out of fat contracts of shipments of line pipe, building gas infrastructure, etc. This is either a vast number of workplaces, never created in case the USA would succeed in their pressure, so that we would withdraw from the new pipeline project. In addition, these are extra taxes for the EU budget. The Nord Stream 2 construction has been a massive project with economic benefits for Europe. Whereas the USA have been trying to involve it into political games.
In conclusion, it is hoped that Merkel, Macron and other EU leaders will stand their ground and let the USA know that cooperation is not the same as manipulation.
In the judgment of the US leadership, a refuse from the Nord Stream-2 construction should cause reduce of Russian impact at the European energy market and retaining Ukrainian transit, which is already a key condition of the Nord Stream 2 existence. Guarantor of its fulfillment is German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Her word has been much more reliable than statements of the US president in office.
It stands to mention that, even by a long stretch of imagination, Ukraine is far from faithworthy transit country. The European Union members had an opportunity to get that unpleasant repeating experience during past cold winters whereupon it turned out that Kiev officials surreptitiously had been filling their gas tanks with European gas. That caused huge short-deliveries in France, Italy, Germany and other countries. Meanwhile Moscow struck an attitude threatening to block further gas supplies.
In this situation appearance of another gas pipe connecting a buyer with a seller without any middleman will be most sane financial and economic global initiative. Of course, some countries would bear certain losses. Thus, Poland and Romania will suffer for they've been playing role of a specific distributing channel for Russian gas coming from Ukraine. However, those damages will be rather reputational. Bucharest and Warsaw will get their gas, anyway.
At the same time abandoning the Nord Stream 2 project will lead to certain economic losses of the EU members and series of European companies, such as E.ON, BASF, Wintershall, Uniper, OMV, Shell. These are not only a great expense for providing various expert examinations and plans developing, but also the phasing out of fat contracts of shipments of line pipe, building gas infrastructure, etc. This is either a vast number of workplaces, never created in case the USA would succeed in their pressure, so that we would withdraw from the new pipeline project. In addition, these are extra taxes for the EU budget. The Nord Stream 2 construction has been a massive project with economic benefits for Europe. Whereas the USA have been trying to involve it into political games.
In conclusion, it is hoped that Merkel, Macron and other EU leaders will stand their ground and let the USA know that cooperation is not the same as manipulation.
