Implications Seen for U.S. LNG as Nord Stream 2 Nears Finish Line

BY RON NISSIMOV July 10, 2020

The start-up of the 5.3 Bcf/d NS2 could curb a potential recovery of U.S. LNG exports even if the Covid-19 pandemic recedes next year, said BTU Analytics LLC energy analyst Connor McLean.

“If Nord Stream 2 comes online as expected, the influx of supply into Europe could place further pressure on a U.S. LNG recovery in 2021,” McLean said in a recent post on the firm’s website.

To combat the Russian plan, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), John Barrasso (R-WY), Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) introduced a bill to sanction any entity that aids in completion of the line. That could include companies that have extensive operations in the U.S., such as Royal Dutch Shell plc, Total SA, Engie and OMV, which have stakes in parts of NS2, and Norwegian maritime classification society DNV. read more

Shell Russia head: We will not be put away by uncertainty

Shell Russia’s Chairman Cederic Cremers has spoken to TASS about oil prices, Nord Stream 2 and new projects

– Oil producers have faced an unprecedented drop in demand this year. Do you think, Mr. Cremers, this can accelerate energy transition and decarbonization process and make an oil peak consumption closer?

– I think that the crisis and the pandemic of COVID-19 clearly put a lot of pressure on our industry – energy demand has dropped, and the impact on the economies around the globe is very real. I do think this volatile market will be with us for a while. We do not expect that there will be a recovery in oil prices or the demand of the products in the medium term. However, we do expect that it will recover in a longer period. read more

The World’s Most Controversial Gas Pipeline Is Nearing Its Endgame

Bloomberg News: Jonathan Tirone: May 13, 2020: 5:29 AM EDT: Last Updated May 13, 2020

(Bloomberg) — Construction of the world’s most controversial natural gas pipeline is about to enter the endgame of an energy dispute that’s pitted the U.S. against Russia and some of its closest trans-Atlantic allies, satellite images show.

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline, built to increase the flow of Russian gas into Europe’s biggest economy, was thwarted five months ago after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed sanctions that forced workers to retreat. Now, after a three-month voyage circumnavigating the globe, the Akademik Cherskiy, the Russian pipe-laying vessel that’s a prime candidate to finish the project, has anchored off the German port where the remaining pipeline sections are waiting to be installed. read more

Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump’s top energy official said he’s confident that Russia won’t be able to complete the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea — and signaled that the U.S. will press forward with its opposition to the project.

Asked about Russian efforts to circumvent U.S. sanctions on the pipeline by completing it on its own, U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said “they can’t” — and dismissed claims that project owner Gazprom PJSC will face only a short delay. read more

Stuart Elliott: 30 JAN 2020

London — Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said Thursday the company was “not spending enough” on its new energies business, particularly in electricity.

Speaking to journalists following the release of Q4 earnings, van Beurden said he “desperately” wanted to grow the business more quickly, but it would remain disciplined in its spending.

Shell created its new energies division — which brings together assets in electricity supply and generation, electric vehicle charging, and other new fuels such as hydrogen and biofuels — in 2016. read more

2 Jan 2020

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is a European affair, and the US must not intervene with this initiative, said Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Last week, US President Donald Trump signed the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, which includes penalties for Nord Stream 2. Allseas’s Swiss company stopped digging the pipes under the pressure of U.S. restrictions.

“If Nord Stream 2 had reached the territories of the U.S. somehow, I would have appreciated the debate of the possible involvement of Washington in these issues. No one has to deal with that, except the nations involved in the project because of geographical and financial aspects, “Zakharova told the Rossiya 24 channel. read more

English translation of an article published today by the Dutch FD

Russia has a ship to finish Nord Stream 2

From our editor

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia itself has a pipeline ship to complete the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany. The newspaper Kommersant reported this on Thursday, based on anonymous sources.

Earlier this week, under pressure from US sanctions legislation, the Dutch-Swiss offshore group Allseas stopped the construction of Nord Stream 2. This pipeline runs from the Russian Oest-Luga through the Baltic Sea and the Baltic Sea to the German Greifswald. read more

By Anna Shiryaevskaya and Dina Khrennikova | Bloomberg Dec. 24, 2019 at 7:06 a.m. GMT

A new natural gas pipeline into Europe from Russia is shaking up geopolitics. Nord Stream 2, as it’s called, worries leaders in Eastern Europe, has put German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the hot seat and most recently has become the target of U.S. sanctions. The punitive measures approved by U.S. President Donald Trump have stymied construction just as the final sections of pipe were about to be laid.

1. What is Nord Stream 2?

It’s a planned 1,230-kilometer (764-mile) undersea pipeline that will carry natural gas from Russian fields to the European network at Germany’s Baltic coast. It will double the capacity of an existing undersea route — the original Nord Stream — that opened in 2011. Russia’s Gazprom PJSC owns the project, with Royal Dutch Shell Plc and four other investors including Germany’s Uniper SE and Wintershall AG providing half of the 9.5 billion-euro ($10.7 billion) cost. Denmark removed one of the project’s last hurdles in October when it approved construction of the link through its waters. read more

English translation of two Nord Stream 2 articles published today by the Dutch FD.

Berlin convinced: sanctions cannot stop the construction of the last 160 km of Nord Stream 2

By Pieter Lalkens and Jeroen Groot: 24 Dec 2019

The Solitaire was one of the ships of the Dutch-Swiss offshore company Allseas who worked on the Nord Stream 2. Gas pipeline. Photo: Reuters

In brief

• Allseas has stopped the construction of Nord Stream 2 under pressure from the American sanctions.
• But the gas pipeline is simply being phased out, German politicians expect.
• The latter does entail delays and higher costs.

Although the Dutch-Swiss offshore group Allseas has stopped the construction of Nord Stream 2 under pressure from US sanctions legislation, the gas pipeline from Russia to Germany will be phased out in the view of German politics. The sanctions will only lead to a few months delay and higher costs.

“I assume that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline will be delivered in the second half of 2020,” said Peter Beyer, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the German parliament, in a conversation with radio station Deutschlandfunk on Monday. read more

Nord Stream 2 contractor, Swiss-Dutch company Allseas, announced on Friday it had suspended pipe-laying activities. Nord Stream 2, which aims to double the Nord Stream route’s existing capacity of 55 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas a year, is owned by Gazprom, which is financing half of the project worth about 9.5 billion euros ($10.5 billion). Other partners in Nord Stream 2 are Austria’s OMV, the German firms Uniper and Wintershall, Anglo-Dutch energy major Royal Dutch Shell…

By Reuters: Dec. 21, 2019

MOSCOW — The group behind Nord Stream 2 said on Saturday it aimed to complete a pipeline to boost Russian gas supplies to Europe as soon as possible, after U.S. sanctions prompted a major contractor to suspend pipe-laying activities.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed a bill on Friday that included legislation imposing sanctions on firms laying pipe for Nord Stream 2, which seeks to double gas capacity along the northern Nord Stream pipeline route to Germany.

Washington, which has been seeking to sell more of its own liquefied natural gas (LNG) to European states, has said Nord Stream 2 will make Europe too reliant on Russian supplies. read more

By John Donovan

This morning I received from a trusted Shell source a United States Senate letter by US Senators Ted Cruz and Ron Johnson which has just been sent to Edward Heerema, CEO of the Allseas Group.

It contains what can only be described as dire threats against the company in relation to Allseas installation of a natural gas pipeline in Russia’s Nord Stream 2 project, in which Royal Dutch Shell is a major partner.

The letter dated 18 Dec 2019 from the US Senators demands that the Captain of the worlds largest vessel, Pioneering Spirit… “that’s right now laying this pipeline… needs to instruct the ship’s captain to set sail for other waters, because if they don’t, they’ll put the company out of business.” read more