Russian gas monopoly Gazprom is planning to construct a new gas pipeline to Germany via Baltic Sea that could double direct supplies of Russian gas to Europe.
The two threads of the new gas pipeline will have a capacity of 55 billion cubic metres per year, Gazprom said. Royal Dutch Shell, Germany’s E.On and Austria’s OMV have been invited to participate. The new pipeline will have a similar route to Nord Stream, Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov said. The company’s stake will be no less than 51%, he added.
The two proposed new pipelines mark part of an effort by Gazprom to deliver gas to Europe by circumventing Ukraine. “It looks like this is the sort of backup project to ensure that Gazprom will be capable to bypass Ukraine at some point in the future,” Alexander Kornilov, a senior oil and gas analyst at Moscow’sAlfa Bank, toldNew Europe on June 18, adding that Gazprom wants to show that it is serious in terms of halting the supplies through Ukraine in 2019 when the current contract with Ukraine’s Naftogaz expires.
On June 18, lead officials with OMV and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller held a meeting at the international economic forum in St Petersburg. Both sides signed a memorandum of understanding for the development of oil and gas fields in Russia. “The memorandum also sets forth the intentions of the parties to examine a possible cooperation in the project of construction of two lines in addition to the already existing Nord Stream pipeline,” the Austrian company said in a statement.
OMV is a partner in Gazprom’s twin Nord Stream pipeline running through the Baltic Sea to Germany. OMV was also a party to the South Stream gas pipeline, which Gazprom scrapped in December 2014 and launched the Turkish Stream pipeline through Turkey instead.
Kornilov reminded that Gazprom wants to construct Turkish Stream in order to bypass Ukraine. “At the same time we don’t have so far any confirmation or willingness of European partners to join Gazprom in terms of extending the pipeline on the onshore territory of Europe beyond the Greece and Turkey border,” he said. “Currently we have a relatively hostile attitude towards Russian gas in Europe,” he said, adding that the European Union wants to reduce its reliance on Russian gas.
Kornilov said the agreement signed in St Petersburg on June 18 “shows the willingness of Gazprom to have some sort of alternative project down the road if, for instance, Turkish Stream fails”.
The Alfa Bank analyst also noted that Gazprom has repeatedly announced its intention to construct the Yamal-Europe-2 pipeline, which is the alternative pipeline that could run through the territories of Poland and Belarus in parallel to the existing Yamal-Europe pipeline, but never went ahead with the project. “The expansion of Nord Stream resembles to Yamal-Europe-2. This is a backup project,” he said.
However, Kornilov stressed that “even the expansion of Nord Stream as an option would require some efforts from the European part in terms of debottlenecking the existing pipeline systems in Europe, allowing gas to flow more freely from the northern part to the southern part, including Balkans, including Greece”.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/gazprom-plans-nord-stream-expansion-as-turkish-stream-backup/