Gazprom is to restart construction of its Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline after more than a year’s delay caused by the threat of US sanctions against participating construction and supply companies. After Swiss pipe-laying firm Allseas stopped work on laying the pipeline through the Baltic Sea in December 2019 (with it being 94% complete), Gazprom has now secured use of the pipe-layer Fortuna ship and two support vessels so that it can finish the remaining length. The Danish energy agency has recently said it has received the necessary documents to approve the work in the area of the Baltic that is under its control, which will please the supportive German government, which wishes to see an increase in the supply of gas to central Europe. There is some speculation that the highly politically sensitive project (opposed by the Baltic States, Poland and Ukraine, along with the US) is once again moving because it is anticipated that the incoming Biden administration will be less strident in its opposition to the project than the outgoing Trump administration.