Germany suspends approval for Russia's Ukraine-dodging pipeline

Germany suspended its approval for a contentious gas pipeline from Russia on Tuesday, potentially upping the stakes in ongoing geopolitical energy tensions across the European continent.

The Telegraph reported that the federal regulator in Germany had suspended its approval for the ‘Nord Stream 2’ pipeline on a “temporary” basis, with it apparently a technical decision, rather than a political one.

It was still likely to be seen by Russia as a hostile move, the newspaper reported, given president Vladimir Putin had been turning up the pressure on Europe’s largest economy to approve the pipeline.

Nord Stream 2 is set to run via the Baltic Sea, bypassing Ukraine in supplying central and western Europe with natural gas from Russia.

Disputes between Ukraine and Russia have been the source of a number of gas crises since the fall of the Soviet Union, with the largest coming in 2009, when all Russian gas supplies through Ukraine were cut for 13 days amid a price spat.

Germany’s regulator said the suspension of its approval for Nord Stream 2 was because the plans did not meet German and European Union regulations mandating pipeline operators to be owned separately from energy suppliers.

The Nord Stream company said it would address the issue by forming a new subsidiary company in Germany to operate the pipeline, with German authorities saying the suspension would be in effect until it could evaluate the new business.

According to the Telegraph, Germany’s regulator remained confident it could complete certification before a deadline in January, although there was still the issue of an EU rubber stamp following any German go-ahead.

It’s understood the EU could take up to four months to reach any decision, given it was likely to take a much closer look at whether the pipeline operator was genuinely independent of Russia’s gas suppliers.

Ukraine’s national gas company was upbeat on the news, after Naftogaz head Yuriy Vitrenko was asked what he thought by Reuters.

“Good,” he told the news agency.

“This is an important point, which suggests that the German regulator shares our position that certification cannot only apply to the pipeline in Germany, but should apply to the entire pipeline from the territory of the Russian Federation to the territory of Germany,” Vitrenko was quoted as saying.