Potential Nord Stream 2 pipelayer outside Russian port of Kaliningrad: cFlow

New York — A Russian pipelaying vessel expected to complete the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany is now outside the Russian port of Kaliningrad, S&P Global Platts trade flow software cFlow showed Monday.

The Akademik Cherskiy has been widely billed as a replacement for the Allseas vessels that laid most of the 55 Bcm/year line before US sanctions in December last year forced the Swiss company to halt work.

Just 160 km (99 miles) of Nord Stream 2 is left to lay in Danish waters out of the total 2,460 km length.

The Akademik Cherskiy -- which has the dynamic positioning capabilities requested by the Danish license to operate -- left the port of Nakhodka in eastern Russia in early February.

But it is thought the vessel may need to undergo some further modification work to be able to lay the final pipe kilometers and that that work could be carried out in Kaliningrad.

Mateusz Kubiak, oil and gas analyst with the Warsaw-based consulting firm Esperis, told S&P Global Platts on Monday he understood that the necessary work could not be done in time for pipelaying to begin this month.

"Cherskiy needs some preparatory works to be done and it will not be able to start construction works in May," Kubiak said.

"But the key question is whether a more proper upgrade is required too. Possibly, that might be additional welding equipment installation -- Gazprom initially planned such modernization on Cherskiy for 2020 but for smaller pipe diameters than in the case of Nord Stream 2," he said.

Nord Stream 2 is made up of 48-inch diameter pipe, whereas the originally scheduled work on the Akademik Cherskiy was to modify it to be able to lay lower-diameter pipe of up to 32 inches.

The Nord Stream 2 operating company has declined to give any guidance on the schedule for completing the pipeline, saying only that it was "actively looking for solutions" to finish the pipelaying work.

It said it would not comment on any technical, commercial or schedule detail "in the light of the ongoing threat of sanctions."

Russia had planned to bring Nord Stream 2 online by the end of 2019, but first permitting issues in Denmark and then the US sanctions meant the project was delayed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the pipeline should become operational by the first quarter of 2021 at the latest and that Russia has the capability to complete the pipeline without international assistance.