U.S. sanctions are negative for Gazprom's creditworthiness

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The new package of sanctions, which allows to limit investments in Russian export pipelines, in the agency's opinion, creates the risk of weakening Gazprom's negotiating position with Ukraine on transit tariffs after 2019.

"Weakening of Gazprom's negotiating position can lead to an increase in its transit costs due to higher transit tariffs and volumes compared to those that were planned earlier," Moody's said.

A new law on sanctions could prevent Gazprom from building the Nord Stream-2 using project financing, as originally planned by the company to refinance some of its debt, including loans from partners, through longer-term and more profitable loans, Moody's notes.

The Sanctions Act jeopardizes Gazprom's partners, investors, lenders and contractors and creates risks that the construction of both gas pipelines will be delayed, the agency said.

Gazprom expected that with the launch of the Nord Stream-2 and Turkish-Turkish pipelines, the annual volume of gas transit through Ukraine could be reduced to 15 billion cubic meters of gas from 80 billion cubic meters of gas in 2016.