Russia
’s natural gas concern Gazprom has already found buyers for half of the
volumes of gas that will be supplied to
Europe
through the North European pipeline Nord Stream, Managing Director of
the consortium of companies for the pipeline construction Matthias Warnig told
the German economic magazine Euro in an interview.
According to him, contracts on the supply
of over 21 billion cubic metres of gas a year have been concluded with
consumers in
Germany
,
Denmark
,
France
and
Great
Britain
.
Among the major gas consumers in
Germany
are the energy concern E.ON Ruhrgas and a daughter company of Gazprom and
Germany
’s
concern Wintershall – Wingas. Warnig noted that these enterprises plan during
the next 25 years to get, in addition to the currently supplies gas volumes, 9
billion cubic metres of natural gas annually.
The Nord Stream official said that the
laying of the 1,200-km pipeline on the
Baltic
Sea
bottom will be started this April. In
late 2011, the gas will be pumped through the first line of the pipe from
Russia
’s
Vyborg
to
Germany
’s Lubmin near
Greifswald
. After the putting into operation of the second stage of the pipeline
the volume of gas pumping through it from
Russia
to
Western Europe
will reach 55 billion cubic metres annually.
Warnig noted that there will be no
problems with financing of the project the cost of which is 7.4 billion euros,
despite the economic crisis effects. A total of 27 banks will be engaged in the
financing of the first phase of the project. Besides, the Nord Stream
consortium has requested from the German government state guarantees on credits
worth 2.6 billion euros.
Nord Stream is a planned natural gas
offshore pipeline from
Vyborg
in
Russia
to
Greifswald
in
Germany
by the company Nord Stream AG. The name occasionally has a wider
meaning, including the feeding onshore pipeline in
Russia
,
and further connections in
Western Europe
.
The plan for the offshore pipeline is to
build two parallel legs each with capacity of 27.5 billion cubic metres (bcm)
per year. The diameter of the pipe will be 1,220 millimetres (48 in) and the
working pressure 220 bars (22 MPa). The first leg of the pipeline is to be
built in 2010–2011 and the second one in 2011–2012. The first gas delivery is
scheduled for late 2011.
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 Oy for construction and operation of a gas pipeline from
Russia
to
Northern Germany
across the
Baltic Sea
.
North Transgas
cooperated with the German gas company Ruhrgas (later E.ON). A route
survey in the Exclusive Economic Zones of
Finland
,
Sweden
,
Denmark
and
Germany
, and a feasibility study of the pipeline was conducted in 1998. Several
routes were considered including routes with onshore segments through
Finland
and
Sweden
.
On
30 November 2005
, the North European Gas Pipeline Company (later named Nord Stream AG)
was incorporated in
Zug
,
Switzerland
. On
9
December 2005
, Gazprom started
construction of the Russian onshore feeding pipeline. On
4 October 2006
, the pipeline and the operating company were officially renamed Nord
Stream. After establishment of Nord Stream AG, all information related to the
pipeline project, including results of the seabed survey of 1998, were
transferred from
North Transgas
to the new company, and on
2 November 2006
,
North Transgas
was officially dissolved.
On
19 March 2007
, Nord Stream AG mandated Italian company Snamprogetti, a subsidiary of
Saipem, for detailed design engineering of the gas pipeline. A letter of intent
for construction works was signed with Saipem on
17 September 2007
and the contract was concluded on
24 June 2008
. On
25
September 2007
, the pipe supply tender
was awarded to the pipe producers EUROPIPE and OMK, and on
18 February 2008
, the concrete weight coating and logistics services agreement was
awarded to EUPEC PipeCoatings S.A. The agreement to take N.V. Nederlandse
Gasunie to the consortium as the fourth partner, was signed on
6 November 2007
.
On
21 December 2007
, Nord Stream AG submitted application documents to the Swedish
government for the pipeline construction in the Swedish Exclusive Economic
Zone. On
12
February 2008
, the Swedish government
rejected the consortium’s application which it had found too incomplete to take
a stance on. On
20 October 2009
, Nord Stream
received a construction permit to build the pipeline in the Danish waters. On
5 November 2009
, the Swedish and Finnish authorities gave a permit to lay the pipeline
in their exclusive economic zones.
In August 2008, Nord Stream AG hired
former Finnish prime minister Paavo Lipponen as a consultant to help speed up
the application process in
Finland
and to serve as a link between Nord Stream and Finnish authorities. This raised
concerns about the amount of politicians being paid by Nord Stream, as Gerhard
Schroeder, the former chancellor of
Germany
,
is already heading the shareholder's committee.
On
January 15, 2010
the construction began on the Portovaya compressor station in
Vyborg
near the
Gulf of Finland
, the starting
point for the Nord Stream gas pipeline.