On Thursday 18 June Gazprom announced it had signed a deal with Anglo-Dutch Shell, Germany’s E.ON and OMV from Austria to build stage 3 and 4 of the Nord Stream pipeline, with an annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters per year. The announcement came one day after EU diplomats had agreed to extend the sanctions against Russia for another six months. The announcement comes as Gazprom is also involved in constructing a major pipeline connection to Turkey and possibly Southeastern Europe.
What is behind the recent announcement, is it purely business or do political motives play a role? Polish news website Biznes Alert spoke with Sijbren de Jong. The full article (in Polish) can be read here.
An English language version of the article can be read here.