On Tuesday, the operator said that the vessel was heading to the exclusive economic zone of Denmark to begin preparatory works before pipe-laying.
In early March, Nord Stream 2 AG announced that after testing in the Kaliningrad Region, Akademik Cherskiy would join the laying of Nord Stream 2 pipes off the Danish coast. The Fortuna pipelay crane vessel has already been laying pipes of the Line B leg near the Danish shore. The Akademik Cherskiy will be laying pipes of Line A.
Nord Stream 2 is a joint venture of Russian energy company Gazprom and five European partners. The pipeline aims to carry Russian natural gas to Germany across the Baltic Sea. It consists of two 1,230-kilometer (764 miles) long lines with a combined capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year.
Last week the chairman of Gazprom's board of directors, Viktor Zubkov, said that the pipeline was 90-92 percent ready and would be completed this year.