Ukrainian companies want to participate in the approval of Nord Stream 2

Two state-owned Ukrainian gas companies have asked the German energy regulator to participate in the process of approving the controversial Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. They announced this in two separate statements on Thursday. The second branch of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline after the Baltic Sea "does not diversify gas transmission routes and endangers security of supply to Europe," said Serhiy Makogon, CEO of Gas TSO, the operator of Ukraine's gas transmission system. The Ukrainian state gas company Naftogaz of Ukraine again announced that it had applied to participate in the approval process and added that the granting of an operating license for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline would affect all Ukrainians. The German Federal Network Agency is to decide by the beginning of January whether or not to issue a license to operate the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which should transport up to 55 billion cubic meters (m3) of natural gas per year from Russia from Russian deposits. The approval of the gas pipeline will make the Ukrainian network of gas pipelines to the European Union redundant and Kiev will lose millions in transit revenue. To illustrate, in 2020, almost 56 billion m3 of natural gas was transported through Ukraine. Gas prices in Europe have reached record levels in recent weeks. Critics of Russian energy giant Gazprom suspect that it is not responding to increased demand and is not supplying enough gas to the European Union to speed up the approval process for Nord Stream 2. The Russian side has repeatedly rejected these allegations.