Construction of the gas pipeline North Stream is not a global threat for Ukraine as a transiter, Executive Director of the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, Professor Rainer Lindner says. The German expert shared this opinion during the video conference Ukraine-Germany: Relations after Elections, organized by the World Policy Institute.
Former representative of Ukraine's President on energy issues Bohdan Sokolovsky reminded during the video bridge that the North Stream was made with taking into consideration launching of the Shtokman gas field (Russia). However, its development was postponed for 2017. The Ukrainian expert expressed anxiety that following commissioning of the first stage of the North Stream in 2011, there will be redistribution of gas flows from the Ukrainian direction to the North Stream, although it is uneconomic and unprofitable. “It will be a blow on the Ukrainian economy,” Bohdan Sokolovsky warned, since due to launching of the North Stream Ukraine may loose one third of total transit gas volume.
