The last pipe of the two strings of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline has been welded into place, the operator said on Monday, 6 September.
The pipelaying vessel Fortuna lowered pipe number 200,858 onto the seabed in German waters. This comes three months after the first line of the gas pipeline to Germany had been completed.
As the next step, the section of the pipe coming from the German shore will be connected to the section coming from the Danish waters in a so-called above water tie-in.
Nord Stream 2 AG plans to carry out the required pre-commissioning activities with the goal to put the pipeline into operation before the end of this year.
The $11 billion-worth Nord Stream 2 is designed as two parallel 48-inch lines, roughly 1,200 kilometres long, each starting southwest of St. Petersburg and ending at the German coast at Greifswald.
The gas pipelines will have the capacity to transport 55 billion cubic meters of Russian gas a year to the EU, for at least 50 years.