AIN'T NO THANG:

Christoph Weber, a professor of energy economics at the University Duisburg-Essen in Germany, believes the additional capacity is not really needed. "Nord Stream 2 isn't essential for maintaining Germany's energy security," he told DW. "There is sufficient access to natural gas resources in Norway, the United States and North Africa."

Marc Oliver Bettzüge also thinks that the termination of Nord Stream 2 won't open up a supply gap in Europe. At the same time, he acknowledged that gas prices in Europe would decline "noticeably, but not dramatically" if the controversial pipeline would be allowed to deliver gas to the continent.

In an interview with the German FAZ newspaper, the director of the Energy Institute at the University of Cologne, said that prices could fall "by about 5%," citing the findings of his own experts in a study published in April.

By contrast, the verdict of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) is more devastating. DIW's senior energy expert, Claudia Kemfert, told DW that Nord Stream 2 is "unnecessary" in respect to German energy policy, as well as "environmentally destructive and commercially inefficient." Even Russian energy analysts doubt that the project would ever turn a profit for Gazprom, the Kremlin-backed Russian energy giant, she says.

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