The unexpected inclusion of sanctions measures against Euro firms assisting Russian energy exports in a Bill supposed to penalise Iran in the US has caused panic amongst the Euro corporates. The Local reports that Merkel's spokesman said that she
'shared the concerns raised by Germany's Foreign Minister Sigmar
Gabriel and Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern who charged in a joint
statement on Thursday that the measure brings a "completely new
and entirely negative quality to European-US relations". In a hard-hitting statement, the German and Austrian said they
"cannot accept the threat of extra-territorial sanctions against
European companies that participate in the expansion of European energy
supplies" adding that this would "violate international law". They accused Washington of using the sanctions to squeeze Russian gas supplies out of Europe in favour of US energy exports. "The aim is to secure jobs in gas and oil industries in the US," said Gabriel and Kern.'
The major panic seems to be with the Nordstream II scheme - owned by Russia's Gazprom but with substantial investments from Uniper, OMV, Royal Dutch Shell, BASF's Wintershall and Engie. All now face penalties wherever Trump's administration can reach them.
Nothing to do of course with the EU's signalled intention to fine Google €1bn this year, of course, and if US penalties equal this figure it will be purely coincidental.
Watch out BMW and Audi ...
If the Germans had had the sense to build more nuclear power stations in recent decades, they wouldn't need to import gas. And the release of CO2 would be down, too.
ReplyDeleteDon Cox
Anything that pisses off the Eurotwats suits me.
ReplyDeleteDox - The nuclear thing is down to the Germans being so taken up with being "Green". CO2 is an irrelevance since its rise follows temperature rise,a nd in any event we need more of it, not less
"All now face penalties wherever Thump's administration can reach them."
ReplyDeleteFirstly, it's Trump.
Secondly, Trump is on record as wanting a normalisation of US Russia relations, this is the doing of Congressional neo-cons.
We get gas from Russia too, don't we?
ReplyDelete"the German and Austrian said they "cannot accept the threat of extra-territorial sanctions against European companies that participate in the expansion of European energy supplies" adding that this would "violate international law".
ReplyDeleteBwa ha ha, even if there is a negative effect for us I don't really care, I just love to see the arrogant eu dictators huffing and puffing, issuing their impotent threats. It's the U.S. not one of your eu slave states, cry your eyes out.
Anon - typo, now corrected. Though on reflection 'Thump' isn't altogether an inaccurate error ..
ReplyDeleteWe get gas from Russia too, don't we?
ReplyDeleteonly 'by displacement': i.e. Russian molecules arrive somewhere in quite-integrated European gas networks; other molecules reach us from Norway / Netherlands / Belgium
separately, 'we' (i.e gas wholesalers) trade generic gas with Gazprom's UK trading & marketing outfit; but not to a significant degree, in the overall scheme of things - and not even remotely in an irreplaceable way
Be careful what you wish for, EU wanted financial embargoes after Ukraine, now they have them. If you are doing joint ventures, why ask for an embargo?
ReplyDeleteThis actually sounds like obama/kerry stupidity which will work well for President Trump.