A Russian ship capable of laying oil and gas pipelines on the seabed is currently sailing through the North Sea towards Danish waters, possibly to complete the construction of Nord Stream 2. The work on this nearly finished Russian pipeline was halted last year under the threat of US sanctions.
The project is over 90 percent complete, with approximately 160 kilometers of pipeline still to be laid along the Baltic Sea near Denmark. Allseas, a Dutch-Swiss offshore company, was working in the Baltic Sea with two large pipe-laying vessels and several support ships. Around 1,000 employees were active on these vessels. Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak previously stated that deploying the Russian pipe-layer Admiral Chersky was one of the options to complete the project.
The pipe-layer left the port of Nakhodka in Russia’s Far East in February, two months after an international consortium had halted operations. Nord Stream 2 consists of two parallel pipelines spanning 1,230 kilometers across the Baltic Sea to northern Germany. The pipeline has a capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year.
Earlier this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that he expected Nord Stream 2 to be completed by 2021 at the latest. The United States opposes the construction of this northern Nord Stream 2, claiming the project strengthens Russia's grip on the Western European energy market.
Western European countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria, who are part shareholders in the Russian Nord Stream project, dispute this claim. Additionally, the Kremlin will soon be able to bypass the current southern export route through Ukraine, depriving Kiev of much-needed revenue. Moreover, Ukraine will no longer be able to shut off or threaten to shut off Russian exports to Western Europe...