German CDU party dismisses Putin pipeline threat

13 November 2008 17:47  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS news)--Germany’s CDU/CSU parliamentary party on Thursday dismissed threats by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to cancel the Nord Stream Baltic Sea natural gas pipeline project to Germany in case of further delays.

 

Putin told media that Russia could scrap the project and instead build gas liquefaction plants to supply markets via liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments.

 

Putin’s remarks came after German chemicals major BASF and Russia’s state-controlled gas company Gazprom said they were planning to make additional investments worth several billion euros in European natural gas infrastructure in the coming years.

 

Most of the money was earmarked for the construction of Nord Stream, they said.

 

But Andreas Schockenhoff, deputy parliamentary leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU party said: “There is no cause for impatience or threats to cancel the project.”

  

Nord Stream, which would ship gas directly from Russia to Germany from 2011, remained a controversial project in the Baltic region and therefore required careful environmental and other reviews, Schockenhoff said.

 

The controversy was largely due to the fact that Putin and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder – now a member of Nord Stream’s shareholders’ committee – had agreed that the pipeline circumvent the Baltic countries and Poland, which had prompted much distrust in those countries, Schockenhoff said.

 

Instead of issuing threats, Russia could help ease tensions by, for example, resuming supplies on an oil pipeline to Lithuania, he said.

 

Schockenhoff dismissed the Putin's LNG shipment option, saying such transport would be irresponsible because of maritime security concerns in the Baltic Sea.

 

However, he said that despite the controversy, the CDU/CSU was backing the project as it was needed to meet European energy needs.

 

German political commentators said Nord Stream was also very important for Russia, which needed the project to ship its gas from Siberia to lucrative markets in the west.

 

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By: Stefan Baumgarten
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