The last pipe for Nord Stream 2 pipeline was welded

The last pipe for the controversial Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline was welded with a delay of more than a year and a half. Nord Stream 2 AG announced that it will first be lowered to the seabed in German waters. Then it is to be welded over water to the section coming from the German coast. However, the pipeline is not ready for operation. According to Nord Stream 2 AG, there are still some leak tests and further welding work to be done on land. It is expected that the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom will deliver the first natural gas through the new pipeline to Germany in October, initially using the line that was already laid in June. Above all, the resistance of the USA, which threatened and also imposed sanctions on the management, delayed the construction, which was supposed to be finished at the end of 2019. Construction work for Nord Stream 2 began in 2018. The pipeline is expected to deliver 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year from Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany. According to the operating company, this can supply 26 million households. The construction costs of the 1230-kilometer pipeline, which has two strands, are given as more than ten billion euros. The line was financed half by the Russian energy giant Gazprom and half by the five European companies OMV, Wintershall Dea, ENGIE, Uniper and Shell. The gas transport depends, among other things, on the permission of the German authorities. Gazprom plans to pump 5.6 billion cubic meters of gas through the pipeline this year, as the company recently announced. Nord Stream 2 runs from Vyborg in Russia through the Baltic Sea to Lubmin near Greifswald in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The project is controversial. The US government criticizes that Europe is making itself too dependent on Russia for its energy supply. A German-American agreement stipulates that Russia will be subject to sanctions if the pipeline is used as a geopolitical "weapon". Russia had built Nord Stream 1 and now also Nord Stream 2 in order to become more independent from Ukraine, which has long been the most important transit country for natural gas supplies to Europe. The two countries are deeply divided. In addition, Moscow criticizes the fact that Kiev is doing nothing to rehabilitate the ailing lines of the transit network in its own country. The financially weak Ukraine, on the other hand, is urgently dependent on the billions in revenue from the transit fees for gas transit. It fears losses and hopes for Germany's support so that it can continue to play a role as a transit country in the future. The current contract for the transmission of Russian gas to Europe expires in 2024. Ukraine wants to extend it with German mediation. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin had repeatedly said that future gas transit via Ukraine would depend on demand on the European energy market. He also stressed that Russia is not responsible for the Ukrainian state budget. Chancellor Angela Merkel said during her visit to Ukraine on August 22nd that Germany was working to extend the transit agreement between Russia and Ukraine. But she also said that the Ukrainian network could be used in the future for the transmission of hydrogen, for example. Ukraine is hoping for billions from Germany to implement the energy transition.