Earlier, Gazprom was reported to have decided to use the project's excess Russian onshore capacity to develop gas supplies to Northwestern Federal District of Russia due to the downtime of the offshore part of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and in view of the gas supply and gasification programme for consumers in the region.
“There are territories in the Leningrad Region that are ready to receive gas ahead of time. We are talking both about gasification of private households and use of Nord Stream-2 infrastructure to speed up implementation of several investment projects in the region”, the press service quoted region governor.
In this April 9, 2010 file photo, a Russian construction worker speaks on a mobile phone in Portovaya Bay some 170 km (106 miles) northwest of St. Petersburg, Russia, during a ceremony marking the start of construction for the Nord Stream pipeline.
© AP Photo / Dmitry Lovetsky
Nord Stream 2 runs from the Russian coast through the Baltic Sea to Germany and consists of two strings with a total annual capacity of 55 billion cubic metres of gas. It was fully completed in September 2021 and launch work was underway, which included both technical measures and regulatory approvals, primarily from the German authorities.
However, Germany suspended certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which had already been laid from Russia, after Russia recognised the sovereignty of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics in late February. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that the project was "effectively frozen".
Furthermore, the US Department of the Treasury on 23 February imposed sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 AG project operator and its managing director Matthias Warnig.