Gazprom, E.ON,BASF/Wintershall, OMV, ENGIE and Royal Dutch Shell have formed a consortium to build Nord Stream 2, the €9.9bn gas pipeline project that will run from Russia to Europe beneath the Baltic Sea. Led by Gazprom, the consortium will construct a third and fourth pipeline to transport up to an additional 55bn m³ of gas a year.
Russia supplies the EU with about one third of its energy needs, but around 50% of the gas that the EU imports from Gazprom is shipped via Ukraine, with which Russia is in conflict. The route of the Nord Stream pipelines allows it to bypass Ukraine altogether and the two new pipelines will double existing capacity and are due to start transporting gas by the end of 2019.
Source: yahoo