The message from Nord Stream 2 AG indicated that on June 4 the laying of the pipeline was completed, on Thursday the underwater sections between Germany and Russia were connected and as of tomorrow the commissioning and adjustment works for gas filling will start.

The company’s chair informed that the pipeline assembly works of the second branch continue. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that it could be completed in one and a half to two months.

Nord Stream 2 is a project that connects Russia and Germany along the bottom of the Baltic Sea and expands the Nord Stream pipeline, bypassing the transit States: Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and other Eastern European and Baltic countries.

The pipeline passes through the exclusive economic zones and territorial waters of Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany and will have a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

Work was suspended in December 2019 after Swiss Allseas abandoned the pipeline laying due to threats of US sanctions.

As of December 2020, pipeline laying resumed; work is now being carried out by Russian companies Akademik Chersky and Fortuna.

The project doubles the capacity of the current pipeline, in operation since 2012, and was designed to diversify the routes of Russian fuel supply to Europe and, above all, to ensure European energy security.

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