THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 15 OCTOBER 2026
SLF-2007-088
The Sakhalin Papers LXXVIII: Washington Enters the Pipeline War — US Sanctions, German Resistance and Shell’s Nord Stream 2 Exposure
Between April 2017 and February 2022, Royal Dutch Shell’s financial participation in Nord Stream 2 became entangled in an escalating confrontation between Washington, Berlin and Moscow. The United States threatened sanctions against companies supporting the Russian gas pipeline. Germany resisted what it regarded as extraterritorial interference in European energy policy. A major offshore contractor abandoned construction work, while the American government subsequently warned that even financing partners could face sanctions. The pipeline was eventually completed, but it never entered commercial service. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Germany halted its certification, Washington sanctioned the project company, and Shell announced its withdrawal. In May 2022, Shell recognised a $1.126 billion write-down of its Nord Stream 2 loan. Authenticated corporate announcements, American sanctions records, German government statements, European court proceedings and contemporaneous reporting reveal how a commercially ambitious energy project accumulated increasingly visible political and financial risks.
Years after the Groningen gas crisis became a national scandal, residents are still waiting for repairs, reinforcement and certainty — and regional authorities are warning that another round of bureaucracy could make matters worse.
