Elsewhere in Europe, the world's first LNG bunkering vessel,
the 5,000 cbm"Engie Zeebruge" went into service in Belgium in early 2017.
Total bought Maersk Oil for $7.5 billion and Engie's LNG business for $1.5 billion last year,
BP made a number of investments in Africa and Norway while Exxon boosted its U.S. shale position with a $6 billion acquisition.
US opposition to the pipeline, which critics say is a geopolitical power play by Gazprom to increase its dominance of Europe's energy supply, could become a big
headache for the project's European partners Shell, Engie, OMV, Wintershall and Uniper,
who have agreed to pay half of the €9.5bn cost.