Nord Stream 2 looks like attempt to pressure Ukraine – US envoy

The proposed Nord Stream 2 pipeline is not a commercial project, and its goal may be to put pressure on Ukraine, Amos Hochstein, special envoy and coordinator for international energy at the US State Department, said in an interview with Interfax in Washington, DC.

"Ukraine makes close to [$2 billion], if not more than $2 billion in revenue from transit fees. Moving it [the pipeline] away for no real reason puts pressure on Ukraine at a time when their economic recovery is anaemic, and I don't see how they would survive that," Hochstein said.

"I disagree Nord Stream 2 is a commercial project," he added. "We already have infrastructure to bring in the necessary gas through Ukraine, and Nord Stream is not even [operating] at 100% [of capacity], it's at 70%. If you build LNG terminals and build new pipelines from other sources, there is enough gas infrastructure to come into Europe." 

"Building a $12 billion new pipeline when existing infrastructure is already there and gas prices are at an all-time low, means the commercial application of how you monetise [it] is suspect," Hochstein told Interfax.

"Creating new infrastructure that will move the gas from Ukraine to Germany, creating [a situation where] 80% if not more of all Russian gas [delivered] into Europe [goes] into one place, that doesn't make a lot of sense from an energy security perspective or from an economic security perspective," Hochstein said.

The full interview will appear in Interfax Natural Gas Daily on Thursday.