(Bloomberg) -- The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline will be delayed and more costly due to U.S.
sanctions but should be completed in the second half of next year, a senior German official said.Switzerland’s AllSeas Group SA removed vessels that were laying the last section of the pipeline connecting
Russia with Germany, which was just weeks away from completion, after U.S. President
Donald Trump approved sanctions targeting the project.Despite delays and higher costs, the pipeline should be completed in the second half of 2020, Peter Beyer, the German government’s coordinator for trans-Atlantic issues, said Monday in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio. Less than 160 kilometers of the total 2,460 kilometers remain to be laid, according to Nord Stream 2 AG, the project operator.Trump’s decision was not a surprise but the sanctions are “completely incomprehensible” given the agreement between Russia and
Ukraine on gas transit and “not a way to treat friends,” Beyer said.Germany “would have expected a great deal more understanding from the
American friends,” added the lawmaker, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian
Democratic Union party.Nord Stream 2 is set to ship as much as 55 billion cubic meters of
Russian gas annually directly to Germany, doubling the capacity of the existing link. As many as 350 European companies are helping to build the pipeline, the German DIHK industry group estimates.Trump has criticized
Germany for not doing more to diversify imports away from Russia, while Merkel’s government argues that the $11 billion link is crucial to ensure energy security.The firms involved will continue to work to complete the pipeline as soon as possible “in the interest of energy security, affordable gas prices for European consumers and EU economic competitiveness as well as climate protection commitments,” according to Monday’s Nord Stream 2 AG statement.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday Russia will retaliate against the U.S. sanctions, which he called “unacceptable.” Russia doesn’t expect them to impede the completion of construction, but it’s too early to say when the pipeline will be ready, Peskov told reporters.‘Incredible Provocation’The consortium may resort to using Russian-owned ships to complete the Baltic Sea project, German lawmaker Timon Gremmels said at the weekend.“There’s likely to be a Plan B but it’s hardly ideal to change your horse just before the finishing line,” said Gremmels, who is a spokesman on energy policy for Merkel’s junior coalition partner, the Social Democrats. “The sanctions are an incredible provocation but won’t halt the project.”The pipeline’s completion would bring fresh supplies of gas to Europe’s already glutted market and make it more difficult for the U.S. to gain a bigger foothold in shipping cargoes of liquefied natural gas by tanker into Europe.Beyer said the U.S. is trying to push its LNG on the continent and that the more expensive gas could push up prices for German consumers.(Updates with Nord Stream comment in third and eighth paragraphs)\--With assistance from Brian Parkin, Ilya Arkhipov and Olga Tanas.To contact the reporter on this story: Iain Rogers in
Berlin at irogers11@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Raymond ColittFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.