Brussels, 17/03/2009 (Agence Europe) - The controversial Nord Stream project has entered its last phase before its construction with, on Monday 9 March, the beginning of the public crossborder consultation process in nine Baltic Sea rim countries (Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden) on the environmental safety of the undersea pipeline linking Russia to Germany. In the five countries whose territorial waters will be crossed by Nord Stream - Germany, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Russia - citizens will have the possibility of making their observations known on the national and crossborder environmental impact of the project. Once the process has come to an end in June 2009 and authorisations are granted by Berlin, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Stockholm and Moscow, work could begin in 2010 with a view to the first deliveries of Russian gas in 2011.
The Nord Stream consortium has forwarded to the nine Baltic rim countries the crossborder environmental assessment study report carried out by the Danish firm, Rambøll, under the Espoo convention on environmental impact assessment. Signed under the auspices of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in Espoo (Finland) in 1991, this regional convention took effect in 1997 and provides for detailed development of environmental impact studies in close cooperation with other states. It also stipulates the general obligation on states to notify and consult each other on all major projects likely to have a major, harmful crossborder impact on the environment. In the five countries whose waters will be crossed by the gas pipeline (Germany, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Russia), citizens may give their views on the project's environmental security in the national and international context, while consultation launched in the Baltic Sates and Poland will relate to the possible crossborder influence of the gas pipeline. The Swiss-based consortium has also completed its national impact studies in Denmark and Finland and submitted requests for authorisation to set up and use the pipeline in the five countries whose territorial waters will be crossed.
According to the head of the Nord Stream representation bureau in Brussels, Sebastian Sass, the consortium has spent over €100 million on environmental impact assessments to ensure safety of both the conception and trajectory of the project. Nord Stream also prides itself in having dialogue with the authorities of the Baltic rim countries so that their concerns may be understood and taken into consideration.
Mr Sass asserted that, “Nord Stream is a pipeline adapted to its environment”. Its new outline goes round the sensitive biodiversity, marine environment and security areas. In order to detect munitions sunk during the Second World War and which are unexploded or contain toxic substances, several tests have been carried out with radar, sonar and camera visual inspections. Scandinavian naval officers have been called on to give their advice about the sensitive areas and mines. The way in which the pipeline is being built should lead to as little disturbance as possible and will employ computer simulations to calculate sea beds and currents in an effort to avoid stirring up contaminated sediments.
This public consultation phase marks an important step for the project and confirms the stated aims of the consortium, led by former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, to begin building the gas pipeline in 2010 in order to supply Russian gas to the Community market in 2011. Mr Sass says that completion of this phase will help resolve all pending questions by the summer and enable the consortium to obtain the five national authorisations by the end of this year.
The Nord Stream gas pipeline is due to link the Russian port of Vyborg to the German port of Greifswald under the Baltic Sea. The pipeline is 1,220 km long (the longest underwater pipeline in the world) and has an annual capacity of 27.5 billion cubic metres (expected to reach 55 billion cubic metres in its second phase of exploitation). The pipeline should be up and running by 2011. 51% of Nord Stream is owned by the Russian gas utility Gazprom; German energy companies BASF/Winter and E.ON Ruhrgas each own 20% and Dutch energy company Gasunie has a 9% stake. (E.H./transl.rh)