Every effort is being made to complete the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline as soon as possible, but the completion date depends on many factors. This was announced on Friday, October 23rd, by Elena Burmistrova, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of Gazprom, General Director of Gazprom Export.
“The timing of the completion of the construction of the gas pipeline depends on many factors, including the technical characteristics of vessels (including auxiliary ones) and equipment, as well as weather conditions during the period of work on the offshore section,” TASS quotes Burmistrova.
She stressed that “every effort is being made to complete this commercial project as soon as possible, despite the highly politicized controversy surrounding it.”
According to Burmistrova, all the necessary permits have been obtained for the construction of the gas pipeline. In particular, Denmark recently issued a permit to operate a section of a gas pipeline running on the country’s shelf.
In early October, the Polish regulator UOKiK fined five partners of Gazprom for the construction of Nord Stream 2 in the amount of about $ 60 million. These are Engie Energy, Uniper, OMV, Shell and Wintershall. Gazprom itself was fined $ 7.6 billion.
Fines were imposed due to the lack of a work permit. According to the regulator’s decree, these companies are obliged to terminate the contracts for financing the construction of the gas pipeline within a month.
The Russian company decided to appeal against the UOKiK decision, noting that the gas holding did not violate Polish antimonopoly legislation.
The gas pipeline is being built from Russia to Germany along the bottom of the Baltic Sea. At the moment, it remains to lay about 160 km of pipes. Due to sanctions from Washington, construction was temporarily suspended. Recently, there have been calls in the EU and the USA to abandon the project because of the incident with blogger Alexei Navalny.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel noted that the decision on the pipeline in the situation around Navalny will not be German, but pan-European.