The Akademik Cherskiy , occasionally Akademik Tscherski , is a pipe layer , which was built in 2015 on the Jiangsu Hantong Ship Heavy Industry Co Ltd. It is named after the Russian geographer and academician Ivan Dementjewitsch Tscherski .
The Akademik Cherskiy entered service in 2015 as Jascon 18, flew under the flag of Gibraltar and was sold to Gazprom in Russia in 2016 . It is 150 m long, 38.5 m wide and measured at 29,513 GT. It left the port of Nakhodka in February 2020 and is scheduled to complete the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline after the construction freeze.
Construction freeze on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline
As part of the laying of the 1225 km long controversial gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 consisting of 2 parallel pipes, the USA threatened sanctions against Nord Stream 2 AG and the companies involved. When US President Donald Trump signed the sanctions on December 20, 2019, construction was halted.
The Swiss company Allseas , responsible for laying the pipeline, withdrew its laying ships after the construction freeze. The Pioneering Spirit arrived in Kristiansand, Norway, on December 26, 2019 and the Solitaire has been anchored in the roadstead of the Danish port of Nyborg since December 25, 2019 . The missing 160 km are now to be relocated by Akademik Cherskiy and Fortuna .
Apparently in order to remove the Gazprom group from access through US sanctions, the Akademik Cherskiy was transferred to the Russian corporation STIF in 2020.