Gazprom’s Nord Stream pipeline gets final approval

Nord Stream AG, a consortium led by Russian oil and gas behemoth Gazprom got the final approval from Finnish authorities to go ahead with the construction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea.

The Regional Administrative Agency for Southern Finland yesterday granted the 'Water Permit' to Nord Stream to construct, operate and maintain its gas pipeline along a 374-km route through Finland's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), a statement issued by Nord Stream said. 

The proposed 1,223-km pipeline is a fundamentally new route for transportation of Russian gas to west Europe. The target markets include Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, France, Denmark Belgium etc.

The pipeline will run from Petrovaya Bay near Vyborg in Russia's northwest to Greifswald in the northeast of Germany, and will consist of two parallel pipelines with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per annum.

Total cost of the project is estimated at around €7.4 billion ($10.1 billion).

Zug, Switzerland-headquartered Nord Stream is led by Gazprom (51 per cent) and the other partners include Germany's BASF SE/Wintershall Holding AG and E.ON Ruhrgas (20 per cent each) and NV Nederlandse Gasunie (9 per cent).