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“Nord Stream” – energy security for Europe

 

The gas pipeline “Nord Stream” has every right to be called Europe’s main energy project of the outgoing year.

The line delivers gas from the Russian city of Vyborg to the German city of Lubmin across of the Baltic Sea.

The pipeline consists of 2 branches, the total length of which is over 1,200 kms. It is expected that when the second branch is launched (which is planned for 2012), the pipeline, in total, will pump 55 bln cubic meters of gas every year.

“The “Nord Stream” is an important part of Europe’s energy security,” Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev said at the ceremony of opening the line’s first branch, which took place in Germany on November 8, 2011.

“Both Russia and Europe have expected this event for a long time,” the president continued. “It marks a new step in relations between Russia, on the one side, and Germany and other EU countries, which took part in the construction of the pipeline, on the other. For Europe, this line will be a guarantee of energy safety, which is very important in the current period of economic instability.”

 

In an interview to the Voice of Russia, the head of Russia’s Energy Security Foundation Konstantin Simonov said:

 

“As a part of this project, two German companies, “Wintershall” and “E.ON”, have received shares in developing the South Russian gas field, from which the Russian gas will be delivered to Europe. This field already produces the largest amount of gas it can – 25 bln cubic meters in a year. This is one of the largest projects in Russia’s gas production in the last 10 years. It is very important both for Russia and Germany that German companies have a share in projects which are being implemented on Russia’s territory and that the Russian gas giant “Gazprom” is now able to increase its share in the German “Wingas” company, which sells gas in Europe.”

It should not be forgotten that at first, there were many opponents of the “Nord Stream” project. A number of ecologists and even some European top politicians were against it.

 

Another difficulty was that the “Nord Stream” project includes many novelties. One of them is that it is the world’s longest pipeline which is laid along a sea’s bottom. To escape problems which way occur here, Russia has decided to build a platform in the sea for monitoring the pipeline from it. But this decision has met a rather peculiar protest from a number of Swedish MPs. Konstantin Simonov recollects:

 

“The Swedish MPs were worried that with this platform might be used by Russia for sending a landing-party to Sweden from there – and Russia had to reject this idea.”

However, finally, all the problems have been settled. The pipeline was built with all the international standards taken into account. It doesn’t cross the places where mines from WWII still lie on the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

“This project meets all the international regulations, including the demands for economic practicability,” the Director of the Russian Institute of National Energy Sergey Pravosudov says.

“The “Nord Stream” is the longest undersea gas pipeline in the world – and it was built according to the latest technologies. All experts are sure that is it quite safe and the risk that it may produce any harm to the environment is minimal. There are also no doubts that it will be very profitable both for Russia and for Europe. Both the suppliers and the purchasers of the gas are very reliable companies. From the Russian side, it is the country’s leading gas company “Gazprom””.

 

The majority of both Russian and foreign experts are sure that with time, the importance of the “Nord Stream” will only grow – for the demand for Russian gas in Europe will grow. Moreover, Europe has already had many chances to become sure that “Gazprom” is quite a reliable partner.

By Anna Forostenko

The Voice of Russia, December 27, 2011


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