Germany intends to use the pipes left after the construction of Nord Stream 2 to transport liquefied natural gas (LNG). On this subject Welt am Sonntag wrote, citing knowledgeable sources.
According to the newspaper, the German authorities are negotiating with the Swiss gas pipeline company Nord Stream 2 to buy more than 3,000 unused pipes left after the construction of Nord Stream 2 and stored in the port of Mukran on the island of Rügen.
According to Welt, Berlin wants to use pipeline segments to connect the LNG terminal, which should be operational near Rügen by winter 2023-2024, with the mainland Lubmin terminal, which opened in January. According to the idea of ​​the German authorities, described in the article, the length of the pipeline from Rügen to Lubmin should be almost 40 km.
German authorities have started building LNG terminals to avoid dependence on Russian gas. In December 2022, the first German LNG terminal was commissioned in the port of Wilhelmshaven in the North Sea.
The German Federal Ministry of Economics did not respond to the newspaper’s request. Nord Stream 2 said the company does not provide information on business transactions.
Welt notes that the agreement envisaged by the German authorities could be difficult to implement from a legal point of view since Nord Stream 2 is still owned by Russian Gazprom.
As the newspaper Spiegel reported in June 2022, the German authorities have also considered the possibility of nationalizing part of Nord Stream 2. According to the publication, Berlin, in particular, would like to disconnect the part of the gas pipeline crossing the territory of Germany from the main part and reconnect it to the mobile LNG terminal in order to transport gas to the southern part of the country.
Nord Stream 2 and sabotage of gas pipelines
Nord Stream 2 consists of two strings with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters. m per year, which goes along the bottom of the Baltic Sea through the territories of Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. Construction of the pipeline was completed in September 2021, but it has not been put into service. In February 2022, Germany suspended certification of the pipeline after Russia recognized the independence of the DNR and LNR.
In September 2022, three lines of Nord Stream 2 and Nord Stream 1 were damaged by explosions. Sweden’s state security service said the incident was the result of sabotage. The German attorney general’s office noted that there was no evidence of Russian involvement in the Nord Stream attacks. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the damage to the gas pipelines a “clear act of terrorism” and claimed that “Anglo-Saxons” were involved in the explosions. According to The Times, Berlin admits that one of the Western countries could be involved in the sabotage.
American journalist Seymour Hersh published an investigation in early February, alleging that the United States and Norway had organized the Nord Stream bombing. According to the author of the document, the sabotage of the gas pipelines was prepared even before the start of the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and its development was “ordered” by the US President’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan. The White House and the US State Department denied the charges, with the Norwegian Foreign Ministry calling Hersh’s statements “nonsense”.
