Twelfth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

The Nordstream II gas pipeline from Russia to Germany violates a number of EU Energy Policy guidelines and increases European dependency on Russian energy supply. It also decreases energy security for several Central European countries and, along with the almost completed Turkish Stream pipeline, threatens to marginalize Ukraine as a key gas transit country between Russian and Europe. Germany and Russia claim that the project is simply a commercial venture, that increased gas transit capacity is needed to meet growing gas demand and to compensate for depletion of North Sea and other European gas fields. Russia also charges that the Ukrainian pipeline system is not properly maintained and that Ukraine is an unreliable and corrupt partner. US opposition to the project is dismissed as disingenuous since the US seeks to market US LNG in Europe. Questions addressed in the study include: Is the pipeline commercially justified and viable? Does the project violate EU Energy Policy guidelines? How will the project affect Central European and Baltic energy security? If not strictly commercial, what are Russian objectives in Nordstrearm II? Does Ukraine have a future role in gas transit? How will Nordstream II affect gas transit for Slovakia, Poland, and Belarus? Why does this Russian/German project rekindle fears of neocolonialism?