Gazprom: setback on Nord Stream II just a 'technicality'

On Friday the Russian energy company Gazprom voted to approve the cancellation of last year’s agreement with its European partners to build the 2 Nord Stream pipeline, according to TASS news agency. However, the report also stated that Gazprom viewed the annulment as a “technical step” and intended for the pipeline to go ahead via a new cooperation deal with Nord Stream II in the near future. The co-signatories of the deal had applied to the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (the OCCP) for approval to build the undersea gas pipeline via the Baltic Sea; however, the OCCP raised an objection to the pipeline’s construction because, it claimed, the venture would increase the dominance of Gazprom over the Polish market. Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller indicated that this delay would allow the energy company to buy time to find a new source of financing. The Swiss company’s project, which is opposed by the Baltic countries, Ukraine and Poland, aims to build a gas pipeline that has capacity of 55 billion cubic metres of gas per year from Russia to Germany.