‘Environmental and political concerns

will not delay Russian-German pipeline’

The Associated Press

BRUSSELS: A joint Russian-German natural gas pipeline to be built in the Baltic Sea will not be delayed by environmental and political concerns, former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany said Wednesday in his new role as adviser to the owner of the pipeline, Nord Stream.

The 1,200-kilometer, or 750-mile, pipeline will go through Russian, Finnish, Swedish, Danish and German territory near parts of the seabed where chemical weapons and mines were dumped during and after World War II.

It will avoid overland routes through Ukraine and Belarus where price disputes led to the European natural gas supply being shut off briefly on New Year's Day in the past two years, raising worries in Europe about Russian reliability as an energy supplier.

Construction is to start in 2010 and the company — controlled by the Russian state natural gas monopoly Gazprom — said it would complete an environmental impact assessment this summer.

"We plan to complete the pipeline on time and we do not believe this would be impossible," Schröder said after he met with EU officials and politicians to put forward his view that the project was critical for European energy security.

"I believe this project is completely essential as far as gas supply security goes, not only for Germany but also Europe," he said, claiming Europe had few other choices as Norwegian supplies dwindle and Iran, the owner of the world's second-largest natural gas resources after Russia, remains a political pariah.

He said alternatives were in "certain regions of the world, where you must ask, 'is that politically a better bet than Russia?'"

Nord Stream said the pipeline, when finished, could deliver 55 billion cubic meters, or 194 billion cubic feet, of gas a year — or a quarter of European Union gas needs in 2015 — directly from Russia to Germany where it could then be transported to Denmark, Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and other countries.

Gazprom supplied around 150 billion cubic meters of gas in 2005.

But countries bordering the Baltic Sea have expressed worries that the pipeline poses a major risk to the environment and Russian activity in their waters could compromise their military security.

In December, Swedish lawmakers raised fears about disturbing the seabed, especially because of the large amount of mustard gas from chemical weapons dumped after World War II.

Michael Moore, a Swedish army official, said the Baltic Sea was "one of the most mine-riddled" waters in the world, estimating that some 100,000 mines still rest on the seabed. The company said it would carefully examine the pipeline route to avoid or remove ammunition along a two kilometer corridor.

Dirk von Ameln, the Nord Stream deputy technical director, dismissed worries of explosions, saying most of the chemical ammunition dumped in the sea is inert mustard gas in liquid form.

"This ammunition is not equipped with igniters so we don't have to fear any explosions," he said. "Nevertheless, we will do a very sound investigation of every meter where we put the pipeline to find those chemical warfare but also find any other kind of ammunition."

Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania fear that the pipeline would restrict their access to natural gas.

The pipeline will cost more than €5 billion, or $6.5 billion, but Schröder said that, including onshore sites, the total outlay would rise to about €12 billion.

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