Europe risks giving in to Russia if Germany approves the Nord Stream 2
pipeline as a condition for more gas
supplies from Moscow, the head of
Ukraine’s state energy company has
said
Yuriy Vitrenko, chief executive of Naftogaz, said in an interview with the
Financial Times that Russian president
Vladimir Putin was using gas as a “geopolitical weapon” by insisting any extra
supplies go via the $10bn pipeline,
which bypasses Ukraine to supply Germany directly through the Baltic Sea.
“If anyone has any doubts about it,
then Putin is telling everyone to their
face: ‘You allow NS2 to become operational or you won’t get any more gas’,”
Vitrenko said. “He wants to reverse the
clock and go back to the situation that
we had 10, 20, 30 years ago . . . to negotiate special conditions with politicians
of different countries.”
As gas prices have soared to record
highs in the past two months, markets
have moved frequently in response to
comments from Moscow in the hope
that Gazprom, Russia’s state-run gas
monopoly, will increase supplies to
Europe.
Gas futures linked to TTF, Europe’s
wholesale gas price, fell last week after
Putin ordered Gazprom to top up low
storage levels at its sites in Germany and
Austria. But Moscow has so far not
booked additional volumes through
Ukraine’s huge gas transit pipeline system.
Russia is concerned that Nord Stream
2 could become a victim of coalition
negotiations over a new German government — likely to include the Greens,
a strident opponent of the pipeline —
and wants to ensure its swift launch by
refusing to increase supply volumes
through existing routes, according to
current and former officials.
Vitrenko is leading Ukraine’s lastminute push to stop Nord Stream 2 by
trying to force the US and EU to admit
that Russia is using it to weaken Ukraine
by depriving Kyiv of valuable transit
revenue and increasing Europe’s
dependence on Moscow’s gas.
As part of a bilateral agreement on
Nord Stream 2 reached in July, Washington and Berlin vowed to impose sanctions on Russia if its energy policies
endangered Ukraine and other allies in
Europe.
In Rome at the weekend, US president
Joe Biden discussed with German chancellor Angela Merkel efforts “to ensure
that Russia cannot manipulate natural
gas flows for harmful political purposes”, the White House said.
Gazprom and Russia have denied
using Nord Stream 2 to apply pressure.
Vitrenko said Russia was already
weaponising Nord Stream 2 and gas supplies by choking gas supplies to Europe
in past months. But the pipeline
recently cleared a bureaucratic hurdle
when Germany’s economy ministry
said its certification would not threaten
Europe’s gas supply.
Ukraine is worried the push to
approve Nord Stream 2 signifies a lack
of determination in Europe to back
Kyiv’s pro-western aspirations.