Denmark gives go-ahead for Nord Stream 2 Russian pipeline segment

Denmark’s Energy Agency announced on Wednesday that it had granted Nord Stream 2, owned by Russia’s Gazprom, a permit to lay the pipeline across seabed southeast of Denmark’s island of Bornholm.

Already 2,100 kilometres of the pipeline — two reinforced metal tubes — lie complete in Russian, Finnish and Swedish waters. Largely finished is another segment in Baltic Sea waters off northern Germany.

The Danish announcement is likely to rile the US, which in the past has firmly opposed the project, with President Donald Trump asserting it would increase European reliance on Russia gas.

Washington, keen to see US liquefied natural gas sold to Europe, in recent months threatened sanctions against companies involved in the project.

In its statement, the Danish Energy Agency (DEA) said Denmark was “obliged to allow the construction of transit pipelines” under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Via DW