State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert says the United States is concerned that the construction of Nord Stream 2 and Turkish Stream gas pipelines will undermine Ukraine as a state transiting gas to Europe, according to the official's briefing published on the website of the U.S. State Department.
"We agree with many of our European partners that Nord Stream 2 and a multi-line Turkish Stream would reinforce Russian dominance in Europe's gas markets. It would reduce opportunities for diversification of energy sources. It would pose security risks in an already tense Baltic Sea region and it would advance Russia's goal of undermining Ukraine – that's a particular concern of ours – by ending Ukraine's role as a transit country for Russian gas exports to get to Europe," Nauert told a briefing in Washington on November 30.
"Construction of Nord Stream 2 would concentrate about 75% of Russian gas imports to the EU through a single route, creating a potential checkpoint that would significantly increase Europe's vulnerability to a supply disruption," she added.
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As UNIAN reported earlier, in early September 2015, Russia's gas giant Gazprom, Shell, OMV, and E.ON SE signed a shareholders' agreement on a joint project company, which would be engaged in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. The latter is expected to complement the already operating Nord Stream 1.
At the end of April 2017, Gazprom and its European partners signed an agreement on the financing of the Nord Stream 2 project.
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UNIAN memo. The Nord Stream 2 project involves the construction of two strings of a gas pipeline with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year from the Russian coast via the Baltic Sea to Germany. A new pipeline is expected to be built next to Nord Stream 1.