The last pipe for the controversial Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline has been welded.
Nord Stream 2 AG announced on Monday that it will then be lowered to the seabed in German waters.
Then it still has to be connected to the section coming from the opposite direction.
After that, further preparations would have to be made before commissioning.
The Russian gas monopoly Gazprom is expected to start delivering gas to Germany through the new pipeline in October, initially using the line that was laid in June.
More than ten billion euros
Above all, the resistance of the USA, which threatened and then imposed sanctions on the management, delayed the construction, which was supposed to be finished at the end of 2019. The US government criticizes that Europe is making itself too dependent on Russia for its energy supply. Russia accuses the US of primarily pursuing its own economic interests with its resistance to Nord Stream 2. The USA offers its gas, which is obtained by fracking and then liquefied, as an alternative in the EU.
As with the largely parallel pipelines from Nord Stream 1, with Nord Stream 2 Russia is making itself more independent of Ukraine as a transit country for gas deliveries to Europe. Ukraine is in a dispute with Russia and is dependent on revenue from the gas transit. Russia had repeatedly denied allegations that it could misuse the gas pipeline as a "political weapon". A German-American agreement provides for sanctions against Russia in such a case.
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 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.