Nord Stream 2 ties first line to land despite Republican outrage

Nord Stream 2 AG, a subsidiary of Russia’s Gazprom and operator of the Nord Stream 2 offshore gas pipeline, has confirmed that the offshore part of one line of the pipeline has been mechanically completed.

The company said that the pipelaying was completed on 4 June 2021. The completion of the pipelaying for the first line was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The above water tie-in of the first line was performed on Thursday, 10 June. With this, the offshore pipeline sections of Nord Stream 2 laid from Russia and Germany have been interconnected.

The required pre-commissioning activities have started on Friday, 11 June, and will be carried out to prepare for gas-in.

Nord Stream 2 AG added that the offshore pipelay works on the second line were still ongoing and that all activities were in accordance with their respective permits.

Even though the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is nearing its completion constant political turmoil revolves around it. In a move welcomed by the Russian side and President Putin, U.S. President Joe Biden in late May waived sanctions against the company behind the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline because the project is nearly complete and the chance it could harm ties with Europe.

“Because it’s almost completely finished, number one … and it’s not like I can allow Germany to do something or not … To go ahead and impose sanctions now would, I think, be counter-productive in terms of our European relations”, Biden said at the time.

Work on the pipeline intensified following Biden’s decision and once under sanctions vessel Fortuna started laying pipes in German waters and just a week ago, Nord Stream 2 had only 100 kilometres of pipes left to go until full completion.

Days after Putin revealed that the pipelaying of the one line was complete, U.S. Congressman Steve Womack and several of his party colleagues sent a letter to President Joe Biden expressing concern over the Biden Administration’s decision to waive sanctions and allow Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline to move forward.

Womack, along with House representatives Garret Graves, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, and Congressman Andy Barr as well as other Republican members, called on the White House to reconsider the waiver and fully implement congressionally mandated sanctions on the project.

“As the nation recovers from a cyber-terrorist attack on the Colonial Pipeline that reportedly originated in Russia, we have strong objections to your decision to waive sanctions for Nord Stream 2 AG and effectively ensure the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

“These sanctions focused on a one-time communist intelligence officer in the former Soviet-controlled East Germany and close crony of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The completion of Nord Stream 2, which was slowed during the Trump administration, will be a gift to Putin and his efforts to increase geopolitical influence in Europe. This action, which will send more Russian natural gas to Europe, also puts U.S. resources at a distinct competitive disadvantage, costing American jobs and reducing America’s geopolitical influence”, a part of the letter stated.

The letter also attempted to appeal to the clean energy policies of President Biden. They reminded that the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory found that Russian natural gas exported to Europe has a life cycle greenhouse gas emissions profile 41 per cent higher than U.S. LNG exported to Europe.

So, according to Womack “[…] it makes no sense to favour higher-emitting Russian natural gas over the more carbon-friendly American LNG to meet rising global demand.

“If Europe switched its current supply of natural gas from dirtier Russian natural gas to U.S. LNG, global emissions would be reduced by over 70 million tons each year. The completion of Nord Stream 2 will only increase this emissions disparity”.

On his first day in office, Biden returned the U.S. to the international Paris Agreement to fight climate change.

Along with it, Biden revoked a vital permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline project from Canada, and placed a moratorium on oil and gas leasing activities in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that Trump’s administration had recently opened to development.

Womack referred to this issue in the letter as well, as he believed such a move showed open hostility towards domestic pipelines like Keystone XL which was a top priority for Canadian allies.

He stated that it was “baffling that you are willing to green-light Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline [while] the Keystone XL pipeline would enhance our energy security and create job opportunities for Americans. Lifting these sanctions, however, prioritizes Russian energy over American energy and Russian jobs over American jobs”.

It is worth noting that, as Nord Stream 2 completed its tie-in on 10 June, TC Energy – the developer of Keystone XL – announced a day earlier that it was pulling the plug on the project. The company stated that it had no other options after the Biden administration revoked its permit in January.

Womack concluded by saying: “As the threat of American energy continues to grow, so does the Kremlin’s incentive to influence energy operations in Europe and the United States. Moreover, as they have demonstrated, the Kremlin will use any and all tools at their disposal to preserve Russia’s dominant energy status.

“A 2018 Democratic staff report from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee highlighted the meddling of the Russian government in opposing natural gas from non-Russian sources and includes a reference to reports of NATO officials exposing Russian intelligence agencies for providing covert support to European environmental groups to campaign against fracking for natural gas thereby keeping the EU more dependent on Russian supplies.

“We urge you to rethink your action and fully implement the congressionally mandated sanctions against all responsible parties and actors to permanently stop completion of Nord Stream 2”.