(Adds details, comments, background)
By Timothy Gardner, Christoph Steitz and Vladimir Soldatkin
WASHINGTON/FRANKFURT/MOSCOW, May 28 (Reuters) - Two U.S.
senators are considering drafting further sanctions on Russia's
Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline if Moscow goes ahead and
finishes laying pipes, in another blow to a project which has
already faced delays.
U.S. sanctions legislation originally sponsored by Senators
Ted Cruz, a Republican, and Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, in
December halted work by Swiss-Dutch company Allseas on the
pipeline that aims to boost Russia's gas exports under the
Baltic Sea to Germany.
Now a Russian pipe-laying vessel aims to finish the
remaining 100 miles (160 km) of the project, led by state gas
company Gazprom.
The pipeline, aimed at bypassing Ukraine, could be launched
by the end of 2020 or early next year, Russian President
Vladimir Putin has said.
The Trump administration, like the Obama administration
before it, opposes the project on the grounds it would
strengthen Putin’s economic and political grip over Europe.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking before the
sanctions proposal, said last week that Nord Stream 2 would be
completed despite difficulties.
Lavrov added the obstacles that have slowed the project's
completion, including Germany's energy regulator declining to
grant a waiver of EU gas directives to the operators of the
pipeline, would only result in higher gas prices for Europe.
Lauren Blair Aronson, a spokeswoman for Cruz, said "all
options remain on the table" to stop Nord Stream 2 from being
completed. "There are still sanctions options that were drafted
and discussed in 2019, which would significantly broaden the
scope of sanctions," she said.
If last year's bill did not stop the project, Aronson said,
"of course those options will be revisited".
Shaheen "has been closely monitoring the situation in the
Baltic Sea and Russian attempts to circumvent existing sanctions
and is evaluating all options, including additional sanctions",
said spokesman Ryan Nickel.
The Nord Stream 2 consortium includes Uniper,
Wintershall-Dea, Royal Dutch Shell, OMV
and Engie.
Uniper is following the recent development in the United
States in regard to potential new sanctions "with great
concern", while considering them as "pure speculation" at this
stage due to lack of details.
Both Gazprom and Shell declined to comment, redirecting
questions to Nord Stream 2. Nord Stream 2 also called the latest
developments "speculation".
A U.S. Senate aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity,
said some lawmakers had recently spoken with Richard Grenell,
the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Germany, about the possibility
of new sanctions legislation.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner in WASHINGTON
Christoph Steitz and Vera Eckert in FRANKFURT
Vladimir Soldatkin in MOSCOW
Kate Abnett in BRUSSELS, Shadia Nasralla in LONDON and Kirsti
Knolle in VIENNA
Writing by Timothy Gardner and Katya Golubkova
Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Nick Macfie)
