Controversial Baltic Sea pipeline: Nord Stream 2 is completed

It took three years to build, now the controversial structure is finished: Russia has completely laid the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 2 to Germany. The first gas should flow in October. The dispute over the building is likely to continue.

According to the Russian gas company Gazprom, the controversial Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 2 has been completed. On Friday morning at 8.45 a.m. Moscow time (7.45 a.m. CEST), the construction of Nord Stream 2 was completed, Gazprom boss Alexej Miller told the Tass state agency. The last pipe was laid on September 6th. After that, individual sections of the line would have to be connected to one another; this work has now been completed, it said. For Nord Stream 2, this is a breakthrough with a delay of more than a year and a half. The pipeline is intended to transport gas from the Narva Bay in Russia to Lubmin near Greifswald.

First gas to Germany in October?

However, certification from the German authorities is still required to operate the line. It is expected that the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom will deliver the first natural gas through the new pipeline to Germany in October, initially using the line that was already laid in June.

Construction was delayed, in particular due to opposition from the USA. The USA, Ukraine and other countries, especially from Eastern Europe, are rejecting the pipeline on the grounds that it makes the European buyer countries dependent on Russian natural gas supplies.

Start of construction in 2018

Construction work for Nord Stream 2 began in 2018. The pipeline is expected to deliver 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year from Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany. According to the operating company, this can supply 26 million households.

Gazprom owns the Nord Stream 2 project company. The construction costs of the 1230-kilometer pipeline, which has two strands, are given as more than ten billion euros. The line was financed equally by the Russian energy giant Gazprom and the five European companies: the Düsseldorf utility Uniper, Wintershall Dea, the French Engie, the Austrian energy company OMV and Shell.

Concern in Ukraine

Russia had built Nord Stream 1 and now also Nord Stream 2 in order to become more independent from Ukraine, which has long been the most important transit country for natural gas supplies to Europe. The two countries are deeply divided. In addition, Moscow criticizes the fact that Kiev is doing nothing to rehabilitate the ailing lines of the transit network in its own country. The financially weak Ukraine, on the other hand, is urgently dependent on the billions in revenue from the transit fees for gas transit. She fears losses and hopes for Germany’s support so that she can continue to play a role as a transit country in the future.