MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Gazprom's foreign partners for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project say they want to continue participating in the project, despite US sanctions, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich told Sputnik Monday.
"To find funding is not the most difficult question in this sense… Partners are needed precisely to protect the project, because it is a sign, an indicator that the project is commercially effective. The presence of foreign private partners is a signal about this, it's not about financing as such," Dvorkovich said answering the question about the impact of the new US sanctions against Russia in relation to the Nord Stream 2 funding.
"Therefore, we will expect, firstly, that the partners will stay, they, at least, say they would like to continue to participate in the project," the deputy prime minister said.
The official added that Russia could change the structure of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project's funding due to new US sanctions, but hoped that economic factors would prevail over political ones.
"If there would be a strict sanction ban, we will look at how to change the financing structure, but, I repeat, this is not the biggest question. We hope that after all, economic considerations will prevail over political ones," Dvorkovich said answering the question about the impact of the new US sanctions against Russia in relations to the Nord Stream 2 funding.
The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, a joint venture between Russia's Gazprom, France's Engie, Austria's OMV AG, Royal Dutch Shell and Germany's Uniper, envisages the construction of a pipeline with an annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters (1.9 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas.
