MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Alexey Miller, the CEO of the Russian energy giant Gazprom, and Brigitte Zypries, Germany's minister for economic affairs and energy, discussed the prospects of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project to bring Russian gas into northern Europe, Gazprom said in a statement Friday.
"Alexey Miller and Brigitte Zypries discussed the routes of Russian gas supplies to Europe, special attention has been paid to the Nord Stream 2 project," the statement reads.
Gazprom noted that during the first 1.5 months of 2017 Gazprom increased gas exports to Germany by 37 percent on the year-on-year basis. In 2016, the company delivered to Germany 49.8 billion cubic meters of gas against 45.31 in 2015.
The Nord Stream 2 project aims to deliver 55 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas a year to the European Union across the Baltic Sea to Germany, bypassing Ukraine. The launch of the pipeline is planned for 2018.