The first batch of Russian gas to Europe across the Baltic Sea was dispatched on Sunday.
The batch is only a tenth of a cubic meter, but its route almost precisely follows that of the Nord Stream pipeline under construction. The shipment proves the seriousness of the Russian intention to fulfill Nord Stream commitments to Western partners.
The Fantasy yacht will bring the tank with Russian gas to Europe. Wingas GmbH, a gas distribution, transport and storage joint venture of Wintershall Holding AG and Gazprom formed in Kassel in 1993, organized the expedition.
“The voyage along the route of the prospective Nord Stream is unusual, but it shows that the Baltic Sea is the best transit area for gas pipelines,” Wingas Belgium Managing Director Tom Amery said. “Some 550 million yachts would be necessary to permanently supply gas.”
Amery will be the Fantasy skipper. “This is a symbolic shipment,” Gazpromexport Northern Europe department head Mikhail Malgin said while handing over the gas tank to Amery. “It symbolizes the readiness of Russia to ensure uninterrupted supplies through the new gas pipeline. No one doubts that the gas pipeline will be built on time and gas deliveries will start. Hopefully, Nord Stream will further increase the competitiveness of Russian gas on the European market.”
The payment for the first gas shipment was also symbolic. Amery gave the Gazpromexport representative a custom-made coin with the face value of One Wingas.
The yacht will visit ports of Finland, Sweden and Denmark, countries that have permitted laying Nord Stream across their exclusive economic zones, on its way to Greifswald. The Fantasy will cover 820 nautical miles and reach the German coast on June 12. The gas cylinder will be presented to the premier of the Mecklenburg Western Pomerania. The gas will be used for cooking a festive dinner.
The Nord Stream construction is on schedule, and 110 kilometers of the pipeline have been laid, a Wingas source told Itar-Tass.
Nord Stream is a gas pipeline to link Russia and the European Union via the Baltic Sea. It will carry natural gas to supply both businesses and households. The new pipeline will be an important factor of energy security in Europe. Nord Stream will transport up to 55 billion cubic meters of gas each year. This is enough to supply more than 25 million households.
Nord Stream is a 1,220-kilometer-long offshore natural gas pipeline stretching through the Baltic Sea, from Vyborg, Russia to Greifswald, Germany, which is to be built by Nord Stream AG. Nord Stream is a joint project of four major companies: Gazprom, BASF/Wintershall Holding AG, E.ON Ruhrgas AG and N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie. Such a powerful consortium is a guarantee of the best technology, security and corporate governance.
Initially one pipeline will be built with a transport capacity of around 27.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas per annum. In the second phase, a parallel pipeline will be laid to double the annual transport capacity to around 55 billion cubic meters. The second pipeline is planned to come on stream in 2012. The total investment for the offshore pipeline is estimated to be 7.4 billion euros.
In the Russian territory, a 917-kilometer-long on-shore connection is being built by Gazprom, to connect Nord Stream to the Russian gas transmission system.
Two on-shore connections from Greifswald to the south and west of Germany with a total length of 850 kilometers will be built by WINGAS and E.ON Ruhrgas.
Nord Stream runs through the Exclusive Economic Zones of Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany as well as through the territorial waters of Russia and Germany.
The route has been selected and optimized on the basis of an integrated evaluation of technical, environmental, cultural and economic factors. An integrated feasibility study conducted in 1997-1999 considered several alternative routes and landfall locations. The proposed route was judged the most feasible. Nord Stream will carry gas to Germany, from where it can be transported onwards to Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK, and France. The project is open for planning peripheral pipelines to other European countries and regions in the North and West.
The Nord Stream pipeline will be one kilometer longer than planned, 1,233 kilometers, a representative of Germany’s Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency said in Hamburg lately. He referred to the amendments in the 31st kilometer of the pipeline in the German economic zone and said that the pipeline would be laid at a larger depth for navigation safety.
The construction of the pipeline’s offshore section began on April 6, and the pipeline will be ready in the middle of 2011.