The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline will be approximately 246 km and is partly located in the Swedish economic zone.
The company states to SVT News that the work on laying the pipeline has been stalled since December 21, 2019. By then, more than 2,300 of about 2,460 kilometers were completed.
It is the company Allseas based in Switzerland that has withdrawn from its work with its vessels.
“Allseas were forced to cancel work because of the threat of sanctions. Nord Stream 2 is currently investigating various alternatives for the completion of the pipeline. No decisions have been made. We will inform about the event development in due course, ”writes Jens Mueller, spokesperson for Nord Stream 2 in an email to SVT News.
By contrast, all other work is in progress, Nord Stream says. It includes connections on land and work to stabilize the pipeline in the sea.
The project is primarily the Russian state-controlled Gazprom, but also non-Russian companies.
The plan was for the management to be ready by the end of 2019. But when there was only about £ 16 left to build, the United States decided that vessels working with Nord Stream 2 must immediately cease all construction activities if they want to avoid US sanctions.
"If they choose to pursue sanctioned activities, they give up their access to the US economy," said Williams S. Martin, press spokesman at the US Embassy in an email to SVT.
Russia expert Marthin Kragh at the Foreign Policy Institute is convinced that the project will be completed anyway.
- The sanctions have obviously had an effect on the work, but will probably only delay not stopping the project, says Martin Kragh.
"Had they been introduced two years ago, the situation would have been different, the message from Russia now is that they themselves are taking over the work of the Swiss company that previously handled the pipeline," says Martin Kragh, director of the Russia and Eurasia program at the Foreign Policy Institute (UI).
Less than a week ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he hopes that the work with management will be completed by the end of 2020 or during the first quarter of 2021.
Karlshamn's port in Blekinge states that they unloaded and loaded about 40,000 pipes to the gas pipeline, but that they have not received any information that they will be affected by sanctions since they finished their work in August 2019