WASHINGTON, Dec 4 - The annual U.S. defense policy bill unveiled by lawmakers late on Thursday contains sanctions that backers say will halt one of Russia’s biggest projects in Europe: the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, Reuters reported.

President Donald Trump’s administration is eager to offer Europe U.S. shipments of gas and many U.S. lawmakers oppose the pipeline. They say the project, which would bypass Ukraine, depriving it of lucrative transit fees, would boost Moscow’s economic and political leverage over Europe.

The sanctions in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) target any companies and individuals providing help to the project, including upgrading of a ship needed to lay the pipeline, verification of equipment used to lay the pipeline, and insurance.

The NDAA is expected to be passed by the U.S. House of Representatives this week and soon after by the Senate.

“These sanctions significantly toughen existing provisions ... to cover critical components of the pipeline project,” said a U.S. official familiar with the process of crafting sanctions on Nord Stream 2 and who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Backers say the sanctions will deprive Russia of the capability to upgrade Gazprom’s vessel, the Akademik Cherskiy, to lay the type of pipe used in the project, required insurance, and necessary certifications.

“Without any of this, they are just not going to be able to finish the pipeline,” said Daniel Vajdich, president of Yorktown Solutions, a lobbyist for Ukraine’s state energy company Naftogaz, which opposes the project.

Nord Stream 2 did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company said last month the sanctions would directly or indirectly hit about 120 companies from more than 12 European countries and that it was up to governments and the European Commission to protect them from “illegal extraterritorial sanctions.”

Only a final stretch of about 100 miles (160 km) in Danish waters needs to be completed, but the work is complicated by unexploded World War Two bombs on the seabed in the project’s path. (rt/ez)