AfD Member Fears Plans To Buy US LNG May Result In Berlin's Greater Dependency On US

AfD Member Fears Plans to Buy US LNG May Result in Berlin's Greater Dependency on US

The German government's plans to invest into a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal may result in greater energy dependency of Berlin on Washington, Eugen Schmidt, a member of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, told Sputnik on Tuesday.

ST.PETERSBURG (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd October, 2018) The German government's plans to invest into a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal may result in greater energy dependency of Berlin on Washington, Eugen Schmidt, a member of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, told Sputnik on Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that German Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed the government support to open up the country to US gas, thus giving in to US President Donald Trump's criticism about dependence on Russia's fuel. She said that Berlin would co-finance the construction of a $576 million LNG shipping terminal in northern Germany, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. Trump confirmed the reports earlier on Tuesday.

"Officially, this step is a way to diversify gas supplies. Experts also tend to believe that Merkel yielded to [US President Donald] Trump's pressure and agreed to allocate millions to build a terminal in attempt to shield the Nord Stream 2 project from US sanctions. At the same time, Merkel's obedience is not in Germany's interests. If she fails to resist the pressure from Washington in the future, Germany will find itself even more dependent on expensive American liquefied gas preferring it to cheaper Russian pipeline gas," Schmidt said.

The United States, seeking to promote its liquefied natural gas in the European market, has made a number of attempts to impede the implementation of the Nord Stream 2 project and even incorporated a provision for counteracting the construction of the pipeline in its Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.

Nord Stream 2 is a joint venture of Russia's gas giant Gazprom and five European companies. It aims to deliver 55 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas annually to the European Union across the Baltic Sea.