US President Donald Trump has softened his stand on the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline project after a one-on-one meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Nord Stream 2 will transport up to 55 billion cubic metres of natural gas from Russia to Europe across the Baltic Sea.
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Expected to deliver reliable and sustainable new gas supplies to the EU, the pipeline project will run from the Ust-Luga area of Leningrad, Russia, to Greifswald, Germany, covering a distance of more than 1,200km.
At a press conference following the meeting, Trump noted that the US will compete with Russia for the European gas market.
Trump was quoted by FOXBusiness as saying: “I’m not sure, necessarily, that the pipeline is in the best interests of Germany or not, but that was a decision that they made.
“So we’re going to be selling liquefied natural gas, and we’ll have to be competing with the pipeline and I think will compete successfully, although there is a little advantage locationally.”
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By GlobalDataThis comes after the president criticised the project at a Nato summit last week and questioned Germany’s dependence on Russia for its energy needs.
A consortium of Gazprom, Wintershall, PEG Infrastruktur, Gasunie and Engie, Nord Stream is the operator of the project.
Last April, ENGIE, OMV, Royal Dutch Shell, Uniper, and Wintershall agreed to provide financing for 50% of the €9.5bn Nord Stream 2 project cost.
The pipeline is expected to be placed into service by the end of next year.
