Nord Stream 2: Russia to Germany gas pipeline's difficult birth
The alleged nerve agent attack on Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is the latest political controversy to hit the nearly-completed Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, as Germany debates whether to halt the project as part of potential sanctions against Russia.
Led by Russia’s Gazprom with Western partners, the pipeline, which would double the capacity of the existing Nord Stream 1 link, is more than 90% completed and scheduled to operate from early 2021.
The project has split the European Union, with some members saying it will undermine traditional gas transit state Ukraine and increase the bloc’s energy reliance on Russia.
The United States, keen to increase LNG sales to Europe, also opposes the pipeline and has targeted some companies involved with sanctions.
Here are some key dates in Nord Stream 2’s development:
2011
November: Nord Stream 2’s forerunner, Nord Stream 1, a consortium mainly led by Russia’s Gazprom, starts deliveries through a twin pipeline system to Europe under the Baltic Sea. The system’s 55 billion cubic metre (bcm) capacity is equivalent to enough gas to heat 26 million households.
Gazprom and Western partners start looking into expanding the system with another two pipelines to add a further 55 bcm of capacity. The project is estimated to cost 9.5 billion euros ($11.3 billion).
2016
March: Eight EU governments - the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Romania - object to the project, saying it would have “potentially destabilising geopolitical consequences."
2017
April: Nord Stream 2 AG signs the financing agreements for the project with ENGIE, OMV, Shell, E.ON offshoot Uniper, and BASF's subsidiary Wintershall.
2018
January: Germany grants Nord Stream 2 a permit for construction and operation in German waters and landfall areas near Lubmin in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
September: pipe-laying operations start in the Baltic Sea.
2019
January: the U.S. ambassador to Germany warns companies involved in the pipeline's construction that they could face sanctions if they stick with the project.
December: Swiss-Dutch company Allseas suspends its pipe-laying activities in anticipation of U.S. President Donald Trump signing a defense policy bill, which includes sanctions on firms laying pipes for Nord Stream 2.
December: The group behind Nord Stream 2 says it aims to complete the pipeline, despite the U.S. sanctions threat.
December: Trump signs the bill.
2020
January: Russian President Vladimir Putin says he hopes Nord Stream 2 will be finished by the end of the first quarter of 2021. German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she believes the project is legitimized by European regulation and therefore should be completed.
May: Germany’s energy regulator, the Bundesnetzagentur, declines to grant a waiver of EU gas directives to the operators of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that require separate operators for the production, transport and distribution of energy on German territory.
May: An EU court throws out a challenge to EU gas rules from the operators of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, saying it was up to individual members states to enforce them. Applying the gas rules costs time and money, but doesn’t question the pipeline operations as such.
June: Poland starts proceedings against Gazprom, alleging the company has not cooperated with the country’s anti-monopoly proceedings regarding Nord Stream 2.
August: Poland fines Gazprom 213 million zloty ($57 million) for a lack of cooperation in the matter.
Sept. 3: Pressure mounts on Merkel to reconsider the pipeline, after she says Navalny was poisoned with a Soviet-style nerve agent.
Sept. 7: Merkel’s spokesman tells German newspaper Bild am Sonntag she has questioned the project.
September 8: Merkel and her economy minister play down the possibility of halting the pipeline.
Sept. 11: The premier of the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where Nord Stream 2 would come ashore, says the pipeline should not be used to punish Moscow over the Navalny case. Merkel wants to agree to a response with EU partners.
Sept. 14: A Berlin government spokesman renews calls on Russia to explain the events surrounding Navalny’s illness.
$1 = 0.8424 euros
Reporting by Tommy Lund and Bartosz Dabrowski in Gdansk, editing by Vera Eckert, Edward Taylor and Mark Potter
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