The United States is “deeply” concerned about the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline project as a threat to national security, a senior US Energy envoy said after the issue was raised at the US-EU energy council held in the first week of May, Reuters reported.

Since its conception last year, the Nord Stream-2 project to double the volume of gas shipped directly from Russia to Germany has triggered strong reactions. In fact, many EU governments complain it increases dependency on Russia’s Gazprom, which supplies around a third of the European Union’s gas.

“Our commitment to energy security in Europe is directly linked to our concern for national security,” Amos Hochstein, US special envoy and coordinator for international affairs, told journalists in a conference call.

“The US is deeply concerned about a pipeline that would endanger the economic viability of Ukraine,” he said, adding it would “deepen” the rift between East and West, RigZone wrote.