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Originally published on ZeroHedge
On Tuesday, European natural gas futures jumped after the U.S. imposed new sanctions on the highly contested Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement on Monday describing the new round of sanctions targeting a vessel and a “Russian-linked entity” called Transadria Ltd. associated with the pipeline’s construction that allows natural gas flows from Russia directly to Germany.
Blinken said a report had been sent to Congress and the sanctions support Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Act of 2019. There’s been a lot of concern over Moscow’s ability to leverage natural gas supplies over Europe.
“Today’s report is in line with the United States’ continuing opposition to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and the U.S. Government’s continued compliance with PEESA,” Blinken said in his statement. “With today’s action, the Administration has now sanctioned 8 persons and identified 17 of their vessels as blocked property pursuant to PEESA in connection with Nord Stream 2.”
“Even as the Administration continues to oppose the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, including via our sanctions, we continue to work with Germany and other allies and partners to reduce the risks posed by the pipeline to Ukraine and frontline NATO and E.U. countries and to push back against harmful Russian activities, including in the energy sphere,” Blinken said.
Any action against the Nord Stream 2 has stoked higher natural gas prices in Europe. After the U.S. announced sanctions, the Dutch month-ahead gas, the European benchmark, increased as much as 8.7% to 91.34 euros a megawatt-hour.
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Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the move by the U.S. to sanction a ship involved in the pipeline construction is “illegal and wrong.” He said, “We view this extremely negatively.”
Nord Stream 2 is one of several undersea pipelines that Russia has laid in the Black Sea and Baltic Sea to replace old pipelines that run through eastern Europe. The move to reshuffle supplies could allow Moscow to target eastern Europe and western Europe energy flows.
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Natural gas flows on the controversial pipeline have yet to begin and suffered a significant setback last week after the German energy regulator suspended the certification process. Even though the lines are filled with natural gas, the latest hurdles could suggest gas will not be flowing during the Northern Hemisphere winter amid Europe’s lowest gas storage levels since 2013.
Europe is hungry for more gas. If E.U. politicians want to remain in power by not upsetting their constituents over soaring energy inflation, they might have to rely on Moscow, a move that would infuriate Washington.
Stop using the dollar, it is just a blood paper and worthless. In 30 days yankees are eating eachother and the green paper. Time europe moves to free them selves from the war criminal yankees. Russia is our client, they have gas and we have food to sell. All the yankees are bringin in is dead , missery and dept.
The US seems to be happy to force the European gas price which will cause misery to the Europeans then they tell the Europeans that they ” care ” about them being ‘ Free ” . When are they going to wake up or are they so enslaved to the US they have to eat the US b/s .
They are not paying in US dollars, they are paying in Euro, just like they pay for the Gas from Norway. In Euro
The US has always wanted to be the one supplying Europe with the gas as they are afraid Germany and Russia might become too close for them to untangle. They are scared Germany may take other countries with them as friends of Russia which they see as the European vassal states closing the door on them. That is the original reason the US started slapping sanctions on NS 2 from the beginning . They don’t care that the shipping of US gas will cost more just in shipping charges alone than the cost of the gas from Russia.
NS 2 will be the driving force in a new alignment. Germany and Russia. It is an unavoidable reality. It should be welcomed by the US because it will inevitably moved the center of gravity in Eurasia toward the west. A Russian German team will have such gravity that all European nations, except UK, will aggravate around this nucleous.. Aukus won’t lose a thing. Let the gas flow. Both sides of the deal will have influence over the other. It will result in a Greater Europe. What possible threat does this pose to US? Zero. Not so China.
Germans have a tendency to shoot themselves in the feet, over and over again. Germany together with Russia is unstoppable. The nightmare of the crumbling americant pedonazi empire.
Don’t worry guys, Hungary is safe, we just signed a 25year contract with Russia, we are buying independent from the EU at budget price. And we have one of the biggest gas storage facilities in Europe. I can only hope we wont be dumb enough to sell our reserves to the EU and Ukropistan for cash.
They are not paying in US dollars, they are paying in Euro, just like they pay for the Gas from Norway. In Euro