Kiev continues to oppose the construction of the Nord Stream 2, fearing that the new Russian gas hub will completely paralyze the transit of «blue fuel» through Ukraine.
Kiev also started the implementation of  its  Plan B, which he is preparing for such a scenario, executive director of the national energy company Naftogaz Yuri Vitrenko said to the Ukrainian television channel ZIK.

If Nord Stream 2 Russia will launch Russia will have to compensate about 12 billion to Ukraine, Vitrenko added, and work in this direction is already underway. At the same time, according to the representative of Naftogaz, the primary task for the Kiev leadership is not to compensate for financial losses, but to preserve the transit promised to Ukraine by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. However, according to Vitrenko, Ukraine did not receive any clear guarantees from Europe.
Well, apparently, Vitrenko  forgot about the meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, which was held in Sochi in August. The head of the Russian state assured his colleague  that gas transit through Ukraine will be maintained.  Merkel pointed out that  Kiev  should not lose the status of a transit country for Russian gas.  But transit must meet economic requirements and be profitable in every sense of the word, she added.
At the same time, the condition of the Ukraine’s gas transmission system leaves much to be desired because of its disrepair. The last precedent occurred at the end of September.  There was a tube plumbing on the main gas pipeline Komarno-Drozdovichi, through which Poland imports natural gas.

«The wear of the gas transmission system of Ukraine is really critical. At the moment, Kiev needs about $ 9 billion to launch all this and then the system has begun to function fully. This is comparable to the construction cost of the Nord Stream 2. The maximum price, including all financial resources, is 9.8 billion euros, says Ivan Kapitonov, senior lecturer at the Higher School of the RANEPA, senior researcher at the energy policy sector of the Institute of Economy Sciences. «It’s more promising and cheaper to make a new pipe that will make it possible to abandon transportation costs from transit countries than to support the outdated Ukrainian gas transmission system. Several years ago Russia was ready to pay real money for the Ukrainian pipe and invest additionally in its modernization, but Kiev denied this initiative dreaming of some Western overseas owners for the GTS».

Indeed Ukraine had the idea to sell part of its GTS assets to the Americans, Kapitonov reminded. But this idea did not meet with approval among the political leadership of the US.  Apparently  because of Washington’s attempts to promote its own liquefied natural gas to the European market as the  most profitable energy alternative.
The exact opposite, actually. American raw materials are absolutely noncompetitive compared to Russian gas, as it is almost one and a half times more expensive than its pipe equivalent. Last year gas supplies from the Russian Federation amounted to about 194.4 billion cubic meters of gas, american - only three. So the profit of using Russian gas for Europe is obvious.

In turn, the columnist for the German newspaper Die Zeit Theo Sommer notes that both Germany and the entire European Union need to increase the supply of Russian gas. At the moment only 40% of blue fuel from the Russian Federation is imported to Germany, the rest is supplied by Norway, the Netherlands and other countries. At the same time, Russia has long established itself as a reliable supplier of energy resources to world markets for raw materials, Sommer added.

Становится очевидным, что строительство СП-2 не только не противоречит европейской энергетической безопасности, а, наоборот, дает Европе ряд существенных преимуществ. Во-первых, относительно дешевый российский “трубный” газ, во-вторых – надежный партнер в лице России, в-третьих - новые возможности по импорту сырья. А вот противники реализации проекта рискуют, что называется, остаться у разбитого корыта, так как их энергетические возможности уже давно себя исчерпали.


The construction of the SP-2 does’ t contradict European energy security and gives to Europe a number of significant advantages.  Firstly  - relatively cheap Russian pipe gas, secondly - a reliable partner in the person of Russia, and thirdly - new opportunities for the import of raw materials. But opponents of the project are at risk of being left with nothing, as their energy capabilities have long been exhausted.