The owner of the Fortuna pipe-laying barge, which is laying the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, has changed again. On Friday, December 18, RBC reports with reference to the updated entry in the Russian International Register of Vessels (RMRS).
It is noted that the new owner is the Moscow micro-enterprise “KBT-Rus”. Previously, the owner of the barge was Universal Transport Group LLC, which in early October 2020 bought the vessel from the Hong Kong company Strategic Mileage.
According to the latest data from the Federal Tax Service for 2019, which is cited by RBC, the size of the assets of the KBT-Rus company was 1,000 rubles, and there was no revenue. The general director and founder of the enterprise, Sergey Viktorovich Malkov, was the only employee of the organization. It is known that he runs ZAO JV Aeroprima, registered at the same address as KBT-Rus.
The Fortuna barge is to lay a 2.6-kilometer section of the pipeline in the exclusive economic zone of Germany at a depth of less than 30 meters. The work is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2020. Then the construction of the last section of Nord Stream 2 in the territorial waters of Denmark will begin.
On December 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced during a large press conference that the construction of the pipeline was almost complete. According to him, 160 km of pipes remain to be laid before the end of construction.
Nord Stream 2 is being built from Russia to the Federal Republic of Germany along the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Due to earlier US sanctions, pipe-laying work was suspended as the Swiss company Allseas withdrew its vessels from the Baltic. The EU countries mainly support the project and participate in its implementation. The United States, the Baltic states, Poland and Ukraine are opposed.