Economic benefits of Nord Stream-2 should outweigh political ambitions of European politicians

Poland continues to make mischief in gas relations between Russia and Europe, preventing the implementation of the North Stream-2 project as much as it can.

President Andrzej Duda called the construction of the new line of the Baltic Sea gas pipeline economically unjustified. "This is more a political project," - he stated.

The sequence of the Polish leader’s argument doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Duda stated that Nord Stream-2 harms the EU, as it is contrary to the stated goal of diversifying the gas supply routes and would lead to increasing the dependence on Gazprom. But at the same time he offers to deliver more gas to Europe from Russia via existing gas pipelines.

Today, Russia provides the lion's share of the gas supplies to the EU through the Ukrainian gas transportation system, as well as via the gas pipelines of Yamal - Europe (through Belarus, Poland and Germany) and transit-free Nord Stream under the Baltic Sea to Germany. However, the European consumers' needs are constantly increasing. In 2015, Gazprom increased its supply of natural gas to the non-CIS countries by 8% to 159.4 billion cubic meters.