The candidate for post of head of the European Commission Manfred Weber has promised to make every effort to block implementation of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline project.

"We need more independence from Russian gas. As head of the European Commission, I will use all the rules to block Nord Stream-2," - he told the Polska Times.

The Nord Stream-2 project provides for the construction of two gas pipelines with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year from the Russian coast across the Baltic Sea to Germany. The new pipeline is planned to be completed in 2019. It will pass through the territorial or exclusive economic zones of the countries located along the shores of the Baltic Sea - Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany.

The project is implemented by Nord Stream 2 AG, the sole shareholder of which is Gazprom. European partners - Shell, OMV, Engie, Uniper and Wintershall - for their part, undertook to finance a total of 50% of Nord Stream-2, that is, 950 million euro each. Gazprom will provide the other half of the funds - 4.75 billion euro. At the same time, the project’s participants plan to cover 70% of the investments by attracting project financing. The total cost of the project is estimated at 9.5 billion euro.

The project is actively opposed by the Ukraine, which fears losing revenues from transit of Russian gas, and a number of European countries, including Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as the United States, promoting its liquefied natural gas in the EU.

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly noted that Berlin considers the Nord Stream-2 project as commercial, but at the same time it links its implementation with the preservation of the transit of Russian gas through the Ukraine. The German Foreign Minister Haiko Maas said earlier that this was a commercial project and no country would benefit if German or other European companies refused to participate in it.

The Russian side has also repeatedly stated that the project is absolutely commercial and competitive, and pointed out that it doesn’t involve stopping the transit of Russian gas through the Ukraine to the EU.

KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: Rusmininfo