Germany taps brakes on natural gas pipeline

BERLIN — A German regulator Tuesday suspended its certification of Nord Stream 2, an undersea pipeline intended to transport natural gas directly to Germany from Russia that has been the source of a long-running dispute between Berlin, Washington and Brussels.

The action means that the recently completed pipeline will not begin supplying gas to Germany anytime soon and comes against the backdrop of a politically charged jump in energy prices in Europe and tensions between Moscow and Europe over Belarus and Ukraine.

The news caused a jump in European natural gas markets, with the price of U.K. natural gas futures soaring more than 9% Tuesday.

In its ruling, Germany’s Federal Network Agency, which oversees the country’s essential infrastructure, said the decision of the Swiss company that owns the pipeline to set up a subsidiary in Germany meant that more paperwork was required. Once the subsidiary has met the necessary bureaucratic requirements, an evaluation can begin anew.

The German agency does not have the final say in the project, which also requires approval from the European Commission that can only be taken up once the German agency has signed off — meaning Europe could be well into spring before any gas would be flowing.

President Vladimir Putin of Russia has pushed for the German regulators to approve the pipeline as a way of easing Europe’s natural gas crisis. But many in Europe suspect the Russian leader has held back natural gas to create pressure to approve the new pipeline.

But when Alexander Lukashenko, the leader of Belarus, threatened to cut off supplies of Russian natural gas that flow through his country to Europe — a retaliation for recent European Union sanctions over fraud in claiming a sweeping reelection victory in August and for harsh suppression of dissent — Putin chastised him, telling Europeans that he had spoken in anger.