The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline was officially completed on the morning of Sept. 10, according to the official Telegram channel of Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom.
“At a morning operational meeting at PJSC Gazprom, Chairman of the Management Board Alexey Miller said that this morning at 8.45 Moscow time the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline has been fully completed,” the company said in a statement.
Bloomberg reported that Nord Stream 2 plans to be fully operational by Oct.1, 2021, citing anonymous sources within Gazprom.
The project will allow Russia to send gas to Europe through the Baltic Sea and Germany, instead of Ukraine, which will lose at least $1.5 billion in transit fees per year.
Gazprom is negotiating with the German gas regulator before it can fill the pipeline with gas.
A German court recently ruled that Nord Stream 2 must auction half its capacity to third parties, per EU regulations. There are no third-party gas exporters in Russia, where Gazprom is a monopoly. The ruling may limit Gazprom to sending 27.5 billion cubic meters of gas through the pipeline per year, out of a maximum capacity of 55 billion.
Bloomberg’s source also revealed that Gazprom hopes to transport 5.6 billion cubic meters through Nord Stream 2 by the end of the year.
Gazprom wants to begin deliveries before the start of the winter as a gas shortage in Europe has caused regional gas prices to soar. On Sept. 9, the price of gas index hit $696 per thousand cubic meters, a record high this year, according to the publication Ekonomichna Pravda.
In May 2021, head of Gazprom’s exporting division, Elena Burminstrova, suggested that Gazprom could “cover additional demand when Nord Stream 2 is commissioned.”
The comment that led Ukrainian energy think-tank Dixi Group to accuse Gazprom of manipulating the gas market to create an artificial deficit to make it look like Nord Stream 2 is necessary.
The pipeline’s completion became a certainty in July, when the U.S. waived sanctions on the consortium building it. Even though U.S. President Joe Biden publicly criticized the project, his administration chose to repair the U.S.’s relationship with Germany, which views Nord Stream 2 as an economic priority and a cheap energy source.
Germany and the U.S. agreed to seek sanctions and take other unspecified actions against Russia if it ever cut off energy supplies to Ukraine.
