(Adds input from consortium, comments by German foreign
minister, Wintershall CEO, adds details throughout)
BERLIN, Jan 15 (Reuters) - The Russia-led Nord Stream 2
(NS2) consortium on Friday said preparatory work to complete the
subsea gas pipeline to Germany in Danish waters can go ahead,
pointing to the latest notifications by the Danish Maritime
Authority.
Denmark's Nautiskinformation notified shippers on Thursday
that prohibited areas near Bornholm would be established
beginning on Friday for the pipe laying vessel Fortuna, assisted
by construction and supply vessels.
Earlier, the German business daily Handelsblatt said the NS2
group, which is led by Russia's Gazprom, was delaying
the completion work, linking this to enhanced sanctions pressure
from Washington aimed at halting the project.
A spokesman for the Switzerland-based group, who had
referenced the Danish website, said he would not comment any
further.
The consortium will probably be able to say at the end of
January or in early February when work will resume, the
Handelsblatt report had quoted the group as saying.
More than 90% of the project has been completed.
According to Refinitiv Eikon ship tracking data, the Fortuna
was anchored near the German port of Rostock on Friday.
Construction of Nord Stream 2 was initially halted in
December 2019 following the sanctions threat from the United
States, which wants to cut Europe's dependence on Russian energy
and sell its own liquefied natural gas to the region.
Nord Stream 2 is designed to double capacity of the existing
undersea Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Germany to 110
billion cubic metres (bcm) per year, more than half of Russia's
overall pipeline gas exports to Europe.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Friday the
government will consult with the new U.S. administration about
the project as soon as it takes office.
Separately, Germany's maritime authority, BSH, said on
Friday it had given Nord Stream 2 permission to lay pipelines in
its exclusive economic zone any year from the end of September
to the end of May, following an application from the consortium
in June 2020.
The CEO of Wintershall DEA, one of five Western
partners, said on Friday he had not received any letter from
Washington, a day after the CEO of Uniper said the
same.
(Reporting by Kirsti Knolle and Oliver Danzer in Berlin,
Christoph Steitz and Vera Eckert in Frankfurt and Vladimir
Soldatkin in Moscow Editing by Mark Potter and Matthew Lewis)
