Key Stage of Nord Stream 2 Gas Pipeline Completed but Insurance Needed
Russian President Vladimir Putin said a key stage of a gas pipeline to Germany that the U.S. targeted for sanctions had been carried out, ahead of his summit with counterpart Joe Biden.
“I’m happy to say that today, two and half hours ago, the pipelaying for the first line of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline was successfully completed,” Putin said Friday in his address to the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. “Work on the second line is continuing.”
While the underwater section still needs to be welded to the section on German territory, state gas exporter Gazprom PJSC is ready to start filling the link, Putin said.
The 1,230-kilometer (760-mile) pipeline to bring Russian gas under the Baltic Sea direct to Germany has been a major source of friction in trans-Atlantic relations for years, with the U.S. claiming the link could give the Kremlin new leverage over its allies in Europe. The Biden administration softened its stance last month, when it waived sanctions against both the operator Nord Stream 2 AG and its chief executive officer.
Biden said the link was almost completed and new sanctions would hurt relations with Europe. German Chancellor Angela Merkel sent a high-ranking negotiation team to Washington this week to discuss the project with the new administration.
Construction of Nord Stream 2 is set for completion by year-end, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said earlier this week. Before the first gas flows to Europe through the link, Nord Stream 2 needs to obtain insurance and certification, a task made difficult by U.S. sanctions that restrict providing these services to the project.
Read more: 15 Insurers Stop Doing Business with Nord Stream 2 Pipeline to Avoid Sanctions: Reuters
Uniper SE CEO Klaus-Dieter Maubach said he sees “no major roadblocks so far” to completion of the pipeline. Uniper, along with Engie SA, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Wintershall AG and OMV AG are financing half of the 9.5 billion-euro ($11.5 billion) cost of the project, which is owned by Gazprom.
Germany’s Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Authority in May allowed Nord Stream 2 to lay 2 kilometers of the pipeline on the seabed in the nation’s waters. The temporary permission, valid until the end of May, doesn’t include further construction work.
–With assistance from Anya Andrianova, Olga Tanas and Vanessa Dezem.
Photograph: A branded marker post in the yard at the Gazprom PJSC Slavyanskaya compressor station, the starting point of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, in Ust-Luga, Russia, on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021. Nord Stream 2 is a 1,230-kilometer (764-mile) gas pipeline that will double the capacity of the existing undersea route from Russian fields to Europe — the original Nord Stream — which opened in 2011. Photo credit: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg.