Germany will not stop importing Russian natural gas even after 2050, when, according to the Government program, the production of electricity from fossil sources will be stopped. This was stated by the first Secretary of the Department of Economics and Science of the German Embassy in Russia Matthias Dener.

"There will not be ban on the supply for sure, as the chemical industry requires the supply of natural gas. But the part of Russian gas exports that is used for power generation will stop. Today it is about a quarter, it is expected to grow to 40% by 2040, but then again fall," – the RIA Novosti quoted him.

As Dener noted, after 2050, electricity generated in Germany from natural gas, as well as other fossil sources, will be too expensive, because the rights to release carbon dioxide will be too expensive.

The energy strategy of the German authorities, which they previously approved, suggests that the share of renewable energy sources by 2059 should grow from today's 20% to 80%. In Germany, it was also decided that the country's nuclear power plants will stop working by the end of 2022.

Earlier, the Foreign Minister of Germany Haiko Maas said that US sanctions would hardly be able to stop construction of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline – even if the German energy companies, fearing the sanctions, come out of the project, Russia will be able to complete it on its own.

Meanwhile, according to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Moscow appreciates the support provided by the German authorities in support of the Nord Stream-2 project. In particular, the Russian Minister said this on Friday, January 18, at the press conference following the meeting with the German Foreign Minister Haiko Maas.

As Lavrov stressed, the Russian authorities are grateful to Berlin for its assessment of the Nord Stream-2 as a commercial project aimed at "diversifying the supply routes of natural gas."

However, Ukrainian Naftogaz, as it became known from the words of head of the Ukrainian gas holding company Andrei Kobolev, still expects that opponents of the Nord Stream-2 pipeline will win the confrontation, and the project itself will not be implemented.

The head of Naftogaz Ukrainy, in particular, said that he hoped for help of Romania in this matter, which will submit to the European Parliament amendments to the EU Gas Directive. Many opponents of the Nord Stream-2 hope for this, because they are sure that the advantage of forces will be on their side and the project, at least will be frozen for a long time, and ideally will not built at all.

"If the European Parliament votes on the application of this Directive for offshore gas pipelines, there is a high probability that neither the second line of the Turkish Stream nor the Nord Stream-2 will take place. Today we have a very restrained optimism about the fact that Romania, which is currently presiding, is likely to submitt this issue", – said the head of Naftogaz Ukrainy.

Last year, Naftogaz Ukrainy stated that the company also had a "plan B", which was developed for the case if Gazprom still managed to build Nord Stream-2. In all the plans of the Ukrainian gas holding company all comes down to getting billions of dollars of compensation from Gazprom in courts. And its appetites grow, as they say, by leaps and bounds. So, Kobolev estimated losses of Naftogaz since 2009 when gas contracts with Russia were signed, at the amount of $32 billion.

"This figure consists of overpayments, fines and other components, which were the consequences of the 2009 contract. In recalculation on each Ukrainian family it is about 61 thousand hryvnias (about $2 170)", – Kobolev declared.

However, in recent years the Ukrainian holding company only increase the price of gas for the population, and the premium for the alleged victory over Gazprom in the Stockholm arbitration court was given exclusively to its people.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Handelsblatt, the German Economy Minister Peter Altmeyer said that the German authorities had no legal basis for intervention in the Nord Stream-2 project.

"Nord Stream-2 is the wrong whipping boy," - he said, noting that "the pipes are laid for many kilometers in the sea", and therefore the German Government would not interfere in the process of the construction of the gas pipeline.