Why in news?

• Germany has suspended the certification process of Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia.
• Nord Stream 2 is 1,230-kilometer-long natural gas pipeline run from Ust-Luga in Russia to Greifswald in Germany through the Baltic Sea, and will carry 55 billion cubic metres of gas per year.
• It is designed to double Russia’s gas exports to Germany.
• It runs parallel to an earlier Nord Stream pipeline which has been working since 2011 and would double its capacity, to 110 billion cubic meters of gas a year.
• Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom owns half of Nord Stream 2.