Brussels, 07/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 7 April, the CEO of the Ukrainian gas company Naftogaz, Andriy Kobolev, warned of the threat represented by the German-Russian project to double the capacity of the North Stream gas pipeline, North Stream-2, to the energy security of the EU and solidarity within the bloc.
North Stream-2 puts the EU's energy security interests under “huge danger” and is a “threat to the principle of European solidarity”; “this is the first part of the message I delivered to the Commission today”, Kobolev told a small group of journalists on Thursday, following a two-day visit to Brussels, where he attended a hearing of the European Parliament the day before, alongside the vice-president of the Commission with responsibility for the Energy Union, Maros Sefcovic.
Whilst the consortium North Stream-2, which is made up of the Russian gas company Gazprom and five Western European energy companies (BASF and E.ON of Germany, the French Engie, Austria's OMV and the Anglo-Dutch Shell), stresses that its project is purely commercial, Kobolev sees it as a “Trojan horse”.
“Some things that look purely commercial, if you look closely, are very much like Trojan horses. They will create significant issues for the future”, he warned on Wednesday, explaining that North Stream-2 would lead to higher gas prices for the countries of central, eastern and southern Europe, which would have to pay for the costs of the platform as well as for transport costs, whilst Germany would get its gas at a reduced price, thereby destroying all European solidarity.
North Stream-2 will allow Russia to offer discounts to countries encountering high prices, but in exchange for other things, which would be “geopolitical blackmail”, he stressed, warning of the risk that the project would partially or completely shut down the transit of Russian gas to the EU through Ukraine.
Sefcovic has also expressed concern at the risk that North Stream-2 could damage the transit routes through Ukraine, but also through Belarus and Poland via the gas pipeline Yamal.
On Thursday, Kobolev also stressed that the Ukrainian gas company Naftogaz is prepared to carry out an ownership unbundling of its production and transport activities to encourage European companies to become shareholders in the Ukrainian gas transmission system and manage it, in order to guarantee the “transparency and efficiency” of the transport of Russian gas to the EU via Ukraine. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)