Two ships working on Nord Stream 2 under scrutiny of Poland's authorities

Two German-owned, but Polish-registered, vessels face being stripped of their right to sail under the red-and-white flag of Poland owing to their work on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, Poland's deputy minister of infrastructure told PAP on Friday.

"These two ships are owned by a German shipowner, they sail under the Polish flag. They have been registered with the Maritime Chamber in Gdańsk. They are working on the Nord Stream 2 project," said Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Grzegorz Witkowski on Friday.

Poland regards the pipeline, which will take Russian gas to western Europe, as a threat to its security and has taken legal steps against companies working on the controversial project.

"We analysed all the documents that were presented to us by the services related to the security of our country," said Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Grzegorz Witkowski.

”We have made a decision to start the procedure of deregistering them from their right to fly the Polish flag. So that Poland has nothing to do with these two vessels.

"From Friday, these two ships should not be in our waters,” he continued. “Otherwise, we reserve the right to detain them for inspection."

The director of the Maritime Office in Gdynia, Wieslaw Piotrzkowski, also wrote on Thursday on the website of the office that the safety documents for the two vessels, the KREBS GEO and KREBS JET, were no longer valid.