Nord Stream – two pipes are welded together on the Castoro Sei pipelaying vessel
Russian energy giant Gazprom has declared the Nord Stream II pipeline, which will bring much more natural gas from the Russian Federation to Germany from a pipeline under the Baltic Sea, as 71% completed. The Trump administration has been pressuring the EU to end the construction as the U.S. sees Western Europe becoming even more dependent on energy from Moscow.
“Construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline continues. In all, 1,739.4 km of the gas pipeline have been laid on the bottom of the Baltic Sea by now — about 71% of its total length,” Gazprom reported, reported Russian state news agency TASS.
The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is scheduled to be put into operation in late 2019. Each of the pipeline’s two threads will have a capacity of 27.5 bln cubic meters. The pipeline, set to run from the Russian coast along the Baltic Sea bed to the German shore, is expected to connect the Russian resource base with European customers. The total project cost of the Nord Stream 2 is estimated at 9.5 bln euro. Apart from Russia’s Gazprom, the project also involves German companies Uniper and Wintershall, Austrian OMV, French Engie and the British-Dutch Shell.
Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked Berlin as not holding up its end of the bargain in defense of The Continent. Germany spends very little on its own defense and recently refused to participate in military operations in the Middle East at Washington’s request.
Upon completion of Nord Stream II, Germany will receive 30% of its gas from the Russian Federation.
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