OREANDA-NEWS. Austrian OMV, one of Gazprom’s five European partners for the Nord Stream 2 project, allocated € 113 million to finance the construction of the gas pipeline in 2019, according to the company's report. Of these, € 25 million were allocated in the fourth quarter of last year.

Nord Stream 2 includes two lines of a gas pipeline with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters. m of gas per year, which is laid from the coast of Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany. Gazprom’s European partners in the project are German Uniper and Wintershall, Austrian OMV, French Engie and Anglo-Dutch Shell. The pipeline bypasses the transit states - Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and other East European and Baltic countries - through the exclusive economic zones and territorial waters of Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany.

At the end of December 2019, US President Donald Trump signed the country's defense budget for 2020, which, in particular, provides for restrictive measures against the Nord Stream 2 and Turkish Stream gas pipelines. Swiss pipelayer Allseas has already suspended operations in the Baltic Sea.

At the same time, Russia has no doubt that it will be able to complete the Nord Stream 2 project on its own. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the completion of construction would be forced to be postponed for several months, but expressed hope that by the end of 2020, construction work will be completed and the gas pipeline will work.