<article><p class="lead">Intensifying US sanctions make non-completion of the 55bn m³/yr Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline an increasing possibility, according to German utility Uniper.</p><p>"With the US intensifying its efforts on targeted sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 project, the probability of a delay or even non-completion of the pipeline is increasing," the company said today. </p><p>A potential failure "continues to qualify as a major individual risk for Uniper", the firm said. Uniper is one of Russian state-controlled Gazprom's five financial partners in the project. If the pipeline cannot be completed, Uniper "may have to impair the loan provided to Nord Stream 2 and forfeit the planned interest income", it said.</p><p>The firm said it is constantly monitoring the situation regarding US sanctions and "takes all required actions to ensure compliance with applicable rules".</p><p>The US recently further stepped up its sanction threats. The State Department in July <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2123860">updated its guidance</a> under the 2017 Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act to specifically target investors in Nord Stream 2 and the second 15.75bn m³/yr leg of the Turkish Stream link, as well as any entity facilitating their "expansion, construction, or modernisation". </p><p>And US Republican senators this month <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2130151">warned the operator of a German port</a> that it faces "immediate" sanctions for facilitating construction of Nord Stream 2. Providing services and support to pipelaying vessels that could be used to finish the line's offshore section will expose the port of Mukran and its operator Fahrhafen Sassnitz "to crushing legal and economic sanctions", they said.</p><p>Nord Stream 2 pipelaying had halted in late December in response to US sanctions that made Swiss firm Allseas withdraw from the construction activities.</p><p>Uniper said today that the project developer "is working to mitigate the effects of the currently still suspended pipelaying activity and to bring the project to completion". Finishing construction has "strong political support from several country governments as well as the EU", the firm said.</p><p>The EU "considers the extraterritorial application of sanctions to be contrary to international law", the bloc's high representative for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2125302">said in late July</a>. And the German government has <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2124379">pushed for establishing a unified EU strategy</a> to counter US sanctions. </p><p class="bylines">By Stefan Krumpelmann</p></article>
