Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said yesterday (September 5) that his country would begin pumping the first technical gas through the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline from today, so that European clients could start receiving supplies in October or November. Nord Stream (former names: North Transgas and North European Gas Pipeline) is an offshore natural gas pipeline from Vyborg in Russia to Greifswald in Germany. It is owned and operated by Nord Stream AG.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said yesterday (September 5) that his country would begin pumping the first technical gas through the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline from today, so that European clients could start receiving supplies in October or November. Nord Stream (former names: North Transgas and North European Gas Pipeline) is an offshore natural gas pipeline from Vyborg in Russia to Greifswald in Germany. It is owned and operated by Nord Stream AG.
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The original pipeline project started in 1997 when Gazprom and the Finnish company Neste (in 1998 merged with Imatran voima to form Fortum, and 2004 separated again) formed the joint company North Transgas for construction and operation of a gas pipeline from Russia to Northern Germany across the Baltic Sea. North Transgas later cooperated with the German gas company Ruhrgas.
European dependence on Russian energy is already heavy and the pipeline expands the potential dependence. Opponents have seen the pipeline as a move by Russia to bypass traditional transit countries (currently Ukraine, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Belarus and Poland). Some transit countries are concerned that a long-term plan of the Kremlin is to attempt to exert political influence on them by threatening their gas supply without affecting supplies to Western Europe. Following several cuts to supplies to Ukraine, and further on to Europe on January 2006 and January 2009, as well as foreign policy towards Eastern Europe, it has been noted that the distribution of gas can be used as a political tool from the Russian state through Gazprom, which it owns.
The Russian response has been that the pipeline will increase Europe's energy security, and that the criticism is caused by bitterness about the loss of significant transit revenues, as well as the loss of political influence that stems from the transit countries' ability to hold Russian gas supplies to Western Europe hostage to their local political agendas. It would reduce Russia's dependence on the transit countries as for the first time it would link Russia directly to Western Europe.
"Tomorrow we will start pumping technical gas near Vyborg," Putin said on Monday (5 September) at a meeting of his governing United Russia party, referring to the gas flows needed to start supplies.
The 7.4-billion-euro, 1,220-kilometre pipeline aims to deliver 55 billion cubic metres of gas per year, linking Russia's Vyborg, a city 130 kilometres northwest of St. Petersburg, to the German city of Greifswald.
Constructed under the Baltic, the pipeline will run past the coasts of Finland, Sweden and Denmark.
The project was heavily backed by former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who now chairs the Nord Stream shareholders' committee.
In a reference to Ukraine, with whom Russia is entangled in another gas pricing dispute, Putin indicated that his country was following a strategy to bypass problematic transit countries.
For further information: http://www.euractiv.com/energy/russia-starts-filling-nord-stream-gas-pipe-news-507308
Photo: http://www.digitaljournal.com/image/58423
