Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak predicted Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline will be launched by the end of 2020,

Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak predicted Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline will be launched by the end of 2020, Deutsche Welle reported Friday from Moscow. The work can be completed by a Russian pipelaying ship, Academician Chersky, he said. The vessel is currently in Nakhodka, Russian Far East, 12,000 nautical miles from the Nord Stream worksite in the Baltic. It will take two months to move the ship to the Baltic and more time to equip it to finish the job. Allseas, a Swiss company, stopped work Dec. 20, immediately after President Trump signed into law a bill sanctioning the Ukraine-bypass line.