Gazprom will hold a tender to choose a contractor for Nord Stream-2 pipeline in 2016, deputy CEO of the Russian gas holding told reporters on Wednesday.
"We are within the schedule. We are preparing a pipeline tender. Next year, we will hold a tender among pipe-layers," Alexander Medvedev was quoted as saying by TASS.
On Tuesday, Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller said the technical concept of Nord Stream-2 will be the same as that of Nord Stream-1. Earlier, Nord Stream Technical Director Sergey Serdyukov said Nord Stream-2 project is not subject to European regulation.
"European customers will receive gas from European companies, which will solve the problem with the restrictions of Third Energy Package," he said.
Nord Stream-2 is the project for the construction of a natural gas pipeline linking Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea. The route and entry point to the German gas transport system in Greifswald are intended to be the same as for the first Nord Stream pipeline launched in 2011.
Gazprom and a number of European energy companies have agreed to build stage 3 and 4 of Nord Stream, with a capacity of 55 billion cubic meters per year, which should double that of the existing Nord Stream-1.
Also on Tuesday, Gazprom said it has almost halved the planned capacity of its TurkStream gas pipeline project to 32 billion cubic meters per year from an original capacity of 63 bcm. The TurkStream pipeline is an alternative to Russia's South Stream pipeline project to bring gas to Europe without crossing Ukraine, which was dropped last year due to objections from the European Commission, Reuters reported.
