A Norwegian firm that was meant to have provided technical and safety certificates for Russia's gas pipeline to Germany has abandoned the project due to US sanctions.
"DNV GL will cease all verification activities for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline system in line with sanctions and while sanctions are in place", it said in a statement sent to EUobserver on Monday (4 January).
The Norwegian company had been working on Nord Stream 2 for five years prior to the US crackdown, he noted, indicating that it might take a long time for a different firm to step in and do the job.
It will be "very difficult" to find a replacement, Alan Riley, a British expert at the US-based think-tank the Atlantic Council, also told EUobserver.
"They [Russia] will have to find someone who would be credible to do the certification who would pass muster with the Danes", he added.
"But I suspect Moscow will go on pretending it [the pipeline] is still viable for a while", Riley said.
