Cruz legislation targeting Russian pipeline advances
WASHINGTON — Legislation sanctioning construction companies that help complete a controversial Russian pipeline delivering natural gas to Europe cleared a critical legislative hurdle Wednesday.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the bill, sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., in an effort to limit Russian influence in Europe at a time Moscow is working to interfere in elections there and in the United States.
“(Vladimir) Putin gets his revenues for military adventurism directly from petro-billions flowing into the country,” Cruz said. “This bill is exceptionally important as a matter of national security.”
The vote comes as Russian gas giant Gazprom is nearing completion on its more than 750-mile-long Nord Stream 2 project, according to Russian media reports. But Cruz and his allies in the Senate maintain deep-water work left to be done in the Baltic Sea can still be stopped.
The project also faces regulatory hurdles in the European Union, and Denmark has yet to sign off on the pipeline’s route through its waters.
“A lot of countries in Eastern and Central Europe don’t want to see this finished, said Nikos Tsafos,
a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. “They’re concerned about Russia and what this mean for European gas security.”
The committee’s vote on the legislation was delayed after Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, criticized the legislation as too little too late and an effort to aid the U.S. oil and
gas industry at the expense of allies in Europe, including Germany.
Europe is viewed as a critical market for U.S. liquefied natural gas, as export facilities go up at a fast clip along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast.
“Who are we, an omnipotent god who decides where oil and gas is routed?” Paul said Wednesday. “Are we really going to sanction someone because we sell something and want to dominate the market?”
Paul and Sen. Tom Udall, DN.M., were the lone senators to vote against the bill, setting up an eventual vote on the Senate floor.
Nord Stream 2 is designed to deliver 5.5 billion cubic feet of gas a day to Europe, more than 10 percent of total European gas demand last year, Tsafos said. And critically, it allows Gazprom to avoid moving gas through Ukraine, with which Russia has been in dispute for more than a decade.
“If they want to sell more gas to
Europe they need more infrastructure, and Turk Stream and Nord Stream 2 would enable them to do that,” Tsafos said. “Even if these projects don’t get built Russia’s still going to be the largest natural gas supplier to Europe. Europe wants this gas. That trade will happen.”
Cruz and Shaheen maintain the legislation will stop the project, targeting the limited number of contractors they say have the capability to help Russia finish the pipeline. They say it would not impact the companies financing the project, which include Royal Dutch Shell, which maintains a U.S. headquarters in Houston, and four other European energy firms.
“These sanctions are so narrow as to be precisely surgical,” Cruz said. “There’s only five companies in the world with the technology to lay this pipe. The Russians lack the technology.”