German minister warns Nord Stream pipeline revival would be 'wrong direction'

By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Talks to revive the Nord Stream gas pipelines to relaunch Russian gas flows to Germany would be "completely the wrong direction" to go, Germany's economy and energy minister said on Monday.

The Nord Stream pipelines are by far the biggest potential route for Russian gas to flow to Europe. The Nord Stream 1 pipeline supplied gas from 2011 to 2022. The $11 billion Nord Stream 2 project was completed in 2021 but never launched as Germany halted the plan ahead of Russia's war in Ukraine.

Asked on Monday if there was any possibility of the pipelines across the Baltic Sea being revived, Robert Habeck said that at the moment there was not.

"The Ukrainians are still under the aggression of Russia. So I think talking about the potential of Nord Stream 2 or Nord Stream 1, if it's going to be repaired, is completely the wrong direction of discussion," Habeck told reporters in Brussels.

In September 2022, one of the two lines of Nord Stream 2 was damaged by mysterious blasts, along with both lines of Nord Stream 1. No one has taken responsibility for causing the damage.

Germany for decades relied heavily on Russian gas, but Norway has become its biggest supplier since the Ukraine war. Moscow slashed gas supplies to Europe in 2022, plunging the continent into an energy crisis of record-high gas prices.

Habeck said he was concerned Germany's likely incoming government would forget the lessons learned from Europe's past heavy reliance on Russian energy.

"The Social Democrats and the Conservative party in Germany, they built the German energy dependency from Russia, and they did it willingly," he said.

"I'm concerned that the lecture we learned in 2022... can be forgotten."

The conservative CDU/CSU and Social Democrats have started coalition talks to form Germany's next government.

The return of Donald Trump to the White House has helped Russian gas giant Gazprom's share price recover on hopes a swift Ukrainian peace deal would lead to the restoration of gas exports to Europe, Alpha Bank said in a note last month.

However, there are few signs the continent will rush to again tie itself to Russian gas.

The Financial Times reported this month that a long-time ally of Putin was lobbying the U.S. to allow investors to restart Nord Stream 2. The German government has said it remains committed to independence from Russian energy.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett; additional reporting by Christoph Steitz, editing by Ed Osmond)