The German authorities immediately granted approval on Friday to resume work on an underwater pipeline bringing natural gas from Russia.
The Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency’s decision is open to appeal, which means that construction of the Nord Stream 2 project could be suspended again, which has generated widespread criticism in the US, several other European countries and environmental groups.
The US government has argued that the Baltic Sea pipeline would make Europe more dependent on Russian gas and compromise European energy security. The Kremlin then accused Washington of trying to promote its own sales of liquefied natural gas.
Russian state-controlled natural gas company Gazprom has positioned a ship to resume work on the multi-billion dollar pipeline, which was suspended after a Swiss company withdrew its ships from the project under threat of US sanctions. Since the Russian ship is of a different type than the Swiss ships, Germany had to issue a new license.
According to Gazprom, 6% of the pipeline, or around 150 kilometers, has yet to be completed.
Topics
#Germany # gas pipeline work #Russia
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