OREANDA-NEWS. The head of the Austrian OMV Rainer Seele said that he fervently hopes for the soonest completion of the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

As he himself said during the company's annual conference, "I crossed my fingers for our colleagues in Switzerland to complete the construction as soon as possible, because this is our goal as a financial investor."

He stressed that OMV is interested in the project as an investor, since then "the company will receive income as planned."

The name "Nord Stream 2" refers to the construction of two branches of the gas pipeline with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year. They are planned to be built from the coast of Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea. The project is implemented by the Russian "Gazprom" together with foreign financial partners: the German Uniper and Wintershall, the Austrian OMV, the French Engie and the British-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell. The project is actively opposed by the United States, whose main goal is to promote its liquefied gas to the EU, as well as Ukraine, which is afraid of losing transit.

Throughout the entire period of construction of the pipeline, the United States has already imposed repeated sanctions against its participants. So, in December 2019, they imposed sanctions against the gas pipeline, and the Swiss Allseas stopped its activities in this direction. In January, the United States expanded its sanctions against Nord Stream 2 to include testing, inspection and certification services, as well as the modernization of stackers, after which the Norwegian DNV GL announced it would cease operations. And on January 19, the United States imposed sanctions against the Fortuna ship and its owner, the KBT-Rus company.