Tests on the gas pipe Nord Stream 2 are to begin in a few days

Tests on the almost completed Russian-European gas pipe Nord Stream 2 are to begin in a few days. The time will come next week, said the governor of the Leningrad region, Alexander Drosdenko, in a report by the Russian news agency Tass. The Nord Stream 2 consortium did not want to comment. The 1200-kilometer-long pipe that is to transport gas to Germany and other European countries begins in Drosdenko's administrative district. The Russian ambassador to Germany, Sergei Netschajew, is optimistic that the controversial gas pipeline will be completed this year despite "various threats and sanctions". "We are 100 percent sure that we will do it to the end this year," said Nechayev. Opponents like the US criticize that this makes Europe dependent on Russia. However, under the administration of new President Joe Biden, the US has refrained from the previously threatened sanctions. The Düsseldorf utility Uniper and the Austrian oil and gas company OMV are among the financial partners involved in the project. In the dispute over the pipeline, the German Environmental Aid (DUH) does not give up. They have applied to the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) to revoke the building and operating permit for climate protection reasons, the organization said. The DUH argues with climate protection and the most recent ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court. According to a DUH announcement, the court created "new facts" with its constitutional climate protection requirement. In addition, key findings on climate impact and the extent of methane emissions from the natural gas industry only became known after the approval for Nord Stream 2 was granted in 2018.