The controversial Russia-led gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 is likely to start delivering first gas to Germany by the end of 2021, Russian energy experts tell news agency TASS , while the U.S. is targeting the project with additional sanctions to stop its completion. Last week, work off the coast of Germany, the endpoint of the pipeline, resumed , with the pipe-laying vessel Fortuna laying a 2.6-kilometer (1.6-mile) section of the pipe. U.S. sanctions have delayed offshore construction works as the United States looks to thwart the completion of the pipeline by broadening the scope of the sanctions against service providers and those funding vessels involved in the construction of Nord Stream 2, and including the project as a target of more sanctions in the U.S. defense bill. How fast the resumed pipe-laying will proceed “will depend on the technical capability of the vessels, which is still difficult to […]