Russian Ship That Could Finish
Nord Stream 2 Link Reaches the Baltic Sea
A Russian pipe-laying ship that
could help finish the Nord Stream 2 gas link to Europe has anchored at the
Baltic Sea port of Kaliningrad after sailing for three months from the Pacific.
The Akademik Cherskiy, which has
changed destinations several times on its way, recently signaled it was set to arrive in
Kaliningrad on Sunday, tanker tracking data show. Late last year, Russian
Energy Minister Alexander Novak mentioned that vessel as an option to complete
the pipeline that will bring Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea.
The pipeline, one of the key
export projects for Russia’s Gazprom PJSC, was just weeks away from
completion when U.S. sanctions stopped work last year. There’s a small
section in Denmark’s waters still to be completed.
Even as the U.S. imposed a ban
on completion of construction, Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexey Miller
said Russia has the means to build the remaining section on its own, without
specifying how. It’s not clear whether the Akademik Cherskiy is part of the
solution. Novak said last year exports via the link would Stara by end-2020.
The line would feed as much as
55 billion cubic meters per year of natural gas from fields in Siberia directly
into Germany, circumventing the current main transport corridor through
Ukraine. U.S. President
Pipe-laying vessel reaches
Baltic as Russia’s Nord Stream 2 target looms
A special pipe-laying vessel
that could be used by Russia to complete construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas
pipeline to Germany has arrived in the Baltic Sea, a Reuters witness said on
Sunday (3 May).
The arrival of the Academic
Cherskiy suggests that the pipeline project remains a priority for Moscow
despite US sanctions on Russia.
The Nord Stream 2 pipeline was
designed by Moscow to increase gas supplies via the Baltic Sea to Germany,
Russia’s biggest energy customer. Russia’s energy ministry said in December
that the pipeline was expected to be launched before the end of 2020.
Footage taken by Reuters from
the coast showed the Academic Cherskiy idle in a bay near the Kaliningrad
region, which is separated from Russia’s mainland and is sandwiched between
Poland and Lithuania.
The Academic Cherskiy, which
Russian gas company Gazprom bought in 2016, was in the Russian Pacific port of
Nakhodka in December when the United States imposed sanctions on Nord Stream 2.
Background
Russian President Vladimir Putin
said his country has a “pipe-laying vessel” to complete the construction of the
Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany, Kommersant daily reported citing unnamed
sources on Thursday (26 December), following sanctions imposed by Washington.
The United States says the
pipeline would make the continent too reliant for energy on Russia, leaving it
in Moscow’s political grip. Washington has touted exports of US liquefied
natural gas, or LNG, to provide Europe with alternatives to gas pipelined from
Russia.
As a result of the sanctions,
the Swiss-Dutch company Allseas, which was laying the pipeline, suspended work
on it. Russia then said it was preparing to use an alternative vessel for the
project, as 160-km (100-mile) stretch near the Danish island of Bornholm has
not yet been completed.
Russia did not name the vessel
at the time but said it was docked at a port in its far east.
Another vessel that could
potentially be used was in another location at the time, pointing to the use of
the Academic Cherskiy.
It would take less than two days
for the Academic Cherskiy to reach the Bornholm area from the Kaliningrad
region if it started heading that way, according to a Reuters estimate.
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