Nord Stream 1

Nord Stream (German-English mixed expression; german: Nord and en, Stream, literally 'North Stream'; russian: Северный поток, ''Severny potok'') is a pair of offshore natural gas pipelines in Europe that run under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany. It comprises the Nord Stream 1 (NS1) pipeline running from Vyborg in northwestern Russia, near Finland, and the Nord Stream 2 (NS2) pipeline running from Ust-Luga in northwestern Russia near Estonia. Both pipelines run to Lubmin in the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Each pipeline comprises two pipes, denoted A and B, each of the four pipes being approximately long and with approximate diameters of . The combined capacity of the four pipes is of natural gas.

The name "Nord Stream" sometimes refers to a larger pipeline network that includes the feeding onshore pipeline in Russia and additional connections in Western Europe. These Nord Stream projects have faced opposition from some Central and Eastern European countries, as well as the United States, due to concerns that the pipelines would increase Russia's influence in Europe and result in a reduction of transit fees for the use of existing pipelines in Central and Eastern European countries.

On 26 September 2022, the NS1 and the NS2 pipelines experienced multiple large pressure drops to almost zero, attributed to three as of yet unexplained underwater explosions in international waters, rendering three of their four pipes inoperable. The new Baltic Pipe to Poland via Denmark from the Europipe II pipeline between Norway and Germany opened the following day.

History

1997–present

The pipeline project began in 1997 when Gazprom, and Finnish oil company Neste (which merged in 1998 with Imatran Voima to form Fortum Oyj, before being divested into Neste Oyj 2005) formed the joint company North Transgas Oy for the 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 (which later became part of E.ON, later split into E.ON and Uniper). A route survey was done 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 those with onshore segments through Finland and Sweden.

In April 2001, Gazprom, Fortum, Ruhrgas and Wintershall adopted a statement regarding a joint feasibility study for the construction of the pipeline.

In November 2002, the Management Committee of Gazprom approved a schedule of project implementation. In May 2005, Fortum withdrew from the project and sold its stake in North Transgas to Gazprom. As a result, Gazprom became the only shareholder of North Transgas Oy.

In September 2005, Gazprom, BASF and E.ON signed a basic agreement on the construction of a North European Gas Pipeline. In November 2005, the North European Gas Pipeline Company (later Nord Stream AG) was incorporated in Zug, Switzerland. In December 2005, Gazprom started construction of the Russian onshore segment of the Nord Stream project, in order to connect Nord Stream with the wider Russian natural gas pipeline system. Specifically, the Gryazovets–Vyborg gas pipeline was built in Babayevo, Vologda Oblast,

connecting Nord Stream to the Northern Lights Pipeline network. The construction was completed in 2010.

In October 2006, the pipeline and the operating company were officially renamed Nord Stream AG.

All information related to the pipeline project, including results of the seabed survey of 1998, was transferred from North Transgas to Nord Stream AG. In November 2006, North Transgas was officially dissolved.

The environmental impact assessment started in November 2006 when notifications were sent to Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany, as parties of origin (the countries whose exclusive economic zones and/or territorial waters the pipeline is planned to pass through), and Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia as affected parties. The final report on transboundary environmental impact assessment was delivered in March 2009.

The gas systems operated by Finland's Gasum are connected to Nord Stream via a branch pipeline in Karelia.

In March 2007, Nord Stream AG hired Italian company Snamprogetti, a subsidiary of Saipem, for detailed design engineering of the pipeline. A letter of intent for construction works was signed with Saipem in September 2007 and the contract was concluded in June 2008.

In September 2007, the pipe supply contracts were awarded to pipe producers EUROPIPE and OMK. In February 2008, the concrete weight coating and logistics services agreements were awarded to EUPEC PipeCoatings S.A.

In December 2008 Rolls-Royce Holdings was awarded a contract to supply turbines for the compressor. In January 2009, Royal Boskalis Westminster and Danish Dredging Contractor Rohde Nielsen A/S. were awarded a joint venture seabed dredging contract. The supply contracts for the second line were awarded to OMK, Europipe and Sumitomo Heavy Industries in January 2010.

The agreement to add Gasunie to the consortium as the fourth partner was signed in November 2007.

In June 2008, Gasunie was included in the register of shareholders.

In March 2010, French energy company GDF Suez signed with Gazprom a memorandum of understanding to acquire 9% stake in the project.

The transaction was closed in July 2010.

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.

In December 2007, Nord Stream AG submitted application documents to the Swedish government for the pipeline construction in the Swedish Exclusive Economic Zone.

In February 2008, the Swedish government rejected the consortium's application, which it had found incomplete.

A new application was filed later. In October 2009, Nord Stream received a construction permit to build the pipeline in Danish waters.

In November 2009, the Swedish and Finnish authorities permitted the laying of the pipeline in their exclusive economic zones.

In February 2010, the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland issued the final environmental permit allowing construction of the Finnish section of the pipeline.

In January 2010 construction of the Portovaya compressor station in Vyborg, near the Gulf of Finland, began.

The first pipe of the pipeline was laid in April 2010 in the Swedish exclusive economic zone by the '' Castoro Sei'' vessel, which continued to lay most of the distance. The ''Castoro 10'' performed pipe work near Germany, and '' Solitaire'' was pipe-laying near Finland.

Construction of the pipeline was officially launched in April 2010 at Portovaya Bay.

The first pipe was completed in May 2011. Underwater works were completed in June 2011.

In August 2011, Nord Stream was connected to the German OPAL pipeline,

with the first gas delivery pumped in September 2011.

Construction of the second pipe was completed in August 2012 and it was inaugurated in October 2012.

The pipeline was officially inaugurated by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, French Prime Minister François Fillon, and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in November 2011 at a ceremony held in Lubmin.

During a routine annual checkup in November 2015, a small, remotely operated mine-disposal vehicle was found lying near the pipeline near Öland in the Baltic sea. As the craft lay in Swedish territorial waters, Nord Stream requested the Swedish Navy to remove it.

Although the nominal capacity of the pipeline is , it transported in 2021.

On 25 July 2022, Gazprom announced it will reduce gas flows to Germany to 20% of the maximum capacity, or 50% of the current throughput. The company shut down the pipeline for 10 days because of maintenance and claims the current reduction is due to a repair on a turbine in Montréal, Canada, that could not be delivered because of sanctions against Russia. The German government denied this claim and believed there was no reason for reducing the flow. Putin meanwhile during a press conference in Tehran said that these flows could be increased again if Russia receives more turbines from the manufacturer.

On 31 August 2022, Gazprom halted any gas delivery through Nord Stream 1 for three days, officially because of maintenance. On 2 September 2022, the company announced that natural gas supplies via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline would remain shut off indefinitely until the main gas turbine at the Portovaya compressor station near St Petersburg was fixed from an engine oil leak. Gazprom justified this claiming that European Union sanctions against Russia have resulted in technical problems preventing it being able to provide the full volume of contracted gas through the pipeline; Siemens Energy, which maintains the turbine, rejected this and stated that there are no legal obstacles to its provision of maintenance for the pipeline.

2022 gas leaks

On 26 September 2022, multiple ruptures in the NS1 and the NS2 pipelines were detected in what appears to be an act of sabotage. Unexplained large pressure drops were reported in both pipelines at the end-station in Germany. A gas leak from NS2 was located late on the 26th. Early on September 27th, two separate leaks in NS1 were discovered. They occurred in international waters, but within the Danish and Swedish economic zones. Both ''Berliner Zeitung'' and ''Le Monde'' newspapers suggested acts of sabotage, and a Kremlin spokesman said it could be. Neither pipeline was in operation at the time of these incidents, but both did contain gas.Pressure drop now also in Nord Stream 1: Was it sabotage?
''Berliner Zeitung'', 27 September 2022.Sabotage suspected over leaks in Nord Stream gas pipelines
''Le Monde'', 27 September 2022.

The rupturing of the Nord Stream pipelines happened as the Baltic Pipe was being opened for natural gas to come in from the North Sea through Denmark to Poland. , the Yamal–Europe pipeline is operational, although "There are concerns that if Russia introduces sanctions against Ukraine's Naftogaz ..that could prohibit Gazprom from paying Ukraine transit fees .. thatcould end Russian gas flows to Europe via the country."

Technical features

Russian onshore-pipeline

Nord Stream is fed by the Gryazovets–Vyborg gas pipeline. It is a part of the integrated gas transport network of Russia that connects the existing grid in Gryazovets with the coastal compressor station at Vyborg.

The length of the pipeline is . The diameter of the pipe is , and its working pressure is , which is secured by six compressor stations. The Gryazovets-Vyborg pipeline, parallel to the branch of the Northern Lights pipeline (Gryazovets–Leningrad and Leningrad–Vyborg–Russian-state-border pipelines), also supplies gas to the Northwestern region of Russia, which includes Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast.

The pipeline is operated by Gazprom Transgaz Saint Petersburg.

Baltic Sea offshore pipeline

The Nord Stream offshore pipeline is operated by Nord Stream AG. It runs from the Vyborg compressor station at Portovaya Bay along the bottom of the Baltic Sea to Greifswald, Germany. The length of the subsea pipeline is , of which are on Russian inland, in Russian territorial waters, in the Russian economic zone, in the Finnish economic zone, in the Swedish economic zone, in the Danish territorial waters, in the Danish economic zone, in the German economic zone, in German territorial waters and on German inland.

The pipeline has two parallel lines, both with capacity of of natural gas per year. Pipes have a diameter of about , and wall thicknesses of with corresponding working pressures of .

Middle and Western European pipelines

Nord Stream is connected to two transmission pipelines in Germany. The southern pipeline (OPAL pipeline) runs from Greifswald to Olbernhau near the German-Czech border. It connects Nord Stream with JAGAL (connected to the Yamal-Europe pipeline), and STEGAL (connected to the Russian gas transport route via Czechia and Slovakia) transmission pipelines. The Gazelle pipeline, put into operation in January 2013, links the OPAL pipeline with South-German gas network.

The western pipeline (NEL pipeline) runs from Greifswald to Achim, where it is connected with the Rehden-Hamburg gas pipeline.

Together with the MIDAL pipeline it creates the Greifswald– Bunde connection. Further gas delivery to the United Kingdom is made through the connection between Bunde and Den Helder, and from there through the offshore interconnector Balgzand– Bacton (BBL Pipeline).

Supply sources

Russia's West Siberian petroleum basin is the source location for Nord Stream. The Yuzhno-Russkoye field, which is located in the Krasnoselkupsky District, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Tyumen Oblast, was designated as the main source of natural gas for the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

Nord Stream 1 and 2 are also fed from fields in the Yamal Peninsula, Ob and Taz bays. It was predicted that also the majority of gas from the Russian Off-Shore Arctic Gas Field Shtokman field would be sold to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline when it comes on stream and the connecting pipeline via Kola peninsula to Volkhov or Vyborg is built.

However, the Shtokman project was postponed indefinitely.

The proposed gas route from Russia's West Siberian petroleum basin to China is known as the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline. For Russia, the pipeline allows another economic partnership in the face of resistance to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Costs and financing

According to Gazprom, the costs of the onshore pipelines in Russia and Germany were around €6 billion.

The offshore section of the project cost €8.8 billion. Thirty percent of the financing was raised through equity provided by shareholders in proportion to their stakes in the project, while 70 percent was obtained from external financing by banks.

There were two tranches of fundraising.

The first tranche, totaling €3.9 billion, includes a €3.1 billion, 16-year facility covered by export credit agencies and an €800 million, 10-year uncovered commercial loan to be serviced by earnings from the transportation contracts. A further €1.6 billion is covered by French credit insurance company Euler Hermes, €1 billion by German loan guarantee program UFK, and €500 million by Italian export credit agency SACE SpA. Crédit Agricole is the documentation bank and bank facility agent.

Société Générale is the intercreditor agent, Sace facility agent, security trustee and model bank. Commerzbank is the Hermes facility agent, UniCredit is the UFK facility agent, Deutsche Bank is the account bank, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation is the technical and environmental bank. The financial advisers were Société Générale, Royal Bank of Scotland (ABN Amro), Dresdner Kleinwort (Commerzbank), and Unicredit.

The legal adviser to Nord Stream was White & Case, and legal adviser for the lenders was Clifford Chance.

Contractors

The environmental impact assessment of Nord Stream 1 was carried out by Rambøll and Environmental Resource Management. The route and seabed surveys were conducted by Marin Mätteknik, IfAÖ, PeterGaz and DOF Subsea.

Work preliminary front-end engineering was done by Intec Engineering.

The design engineering of the subsea pipeline was done by Snamprogetti (now part of Saipem) and the pipeline was constructed by Saipem.Source
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Saipem subcontracted Allseas to lay more than of both the pipelines. The seabed was prepared for the laying of the pipeline by a joint venture of Royal Boskalis Westminster and Tideway.

The pipes were provided by EUROPIPE, OMK, and Sumitomo.

Concrete weight coating and logistics services were provided by EUPEC PipeCoatings S.A. For the concrete weight coating, new coating plants were constructed in Mukran (Germany) and Kotka (Finland).

Rolls-Royce plc supplied eight aeroderivative gas turbines driving centrifugal compressors for front-end gas boosting at the Vyborg (Portovaya) gas compressor station.

Dresser-Rand Group supplied DATUM compressors. Siirtec Nigi SPA provided a gas treatment unit for the Portovaya station.

For the construction period, Nord Stream AG created a logistic center in Gotland. Other interim stockyards are located in Mukran, Kotka, Hanko (Finland), and Karlskrona (Sweden).

Project companies

Nord Stream 1 is operated by the special-purpose company Nord Stream AG, incorporated in Zug, Switzerland in November 2005. Shareholders of the company are the Russian gas company Gazprom (51% of shares), the German companies Wintershall Dea and PEG Infrastruktur AG (E.ON) (both 15.5%), the Dutch gas company Gasunie (9%), and the French gas company Engie (9%). The chairman of the shareholders' committee is German ex-chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

Transportation contracts

In October 2005, Gazprom signed a contract with German gas company Wingas, then a joint venture of Gazprom and Wintershall (a subsidiary of BASF), to supply of natural gas per year for 25 years. In June 2006, Gazprom and Danish Ørsted A/S (then named DONG Energy) signed a twenty-year contract for delivery of Russian gas per year to Denmark. Ørsted will supply natural gas per year to the Gazprom subsidiary, Gazprom Marketing and Trading, in the United Kingdom.

In October 2009, the companies signed a contract to double the delivery to Denmark.

In August 2006, Gazprom and E.ON Ruhrgas signed an agreement to extend current contracts on natural gas supplies and have signed a contract for an additional per year through the Nord Stream pipeline. In December 2006, Gazprom and Gaz de France (now GDF Suez) agreed to an additional gas supply through Nord Stream.

Controversies

The pipeline projects were criticized by some countries, geopolitical analysts, and environmental organizations (such as the World Wide Fund for Nature).

Political aspects

Opponents have seen the pipeline as a move by Russia to bypass traditional transit countries (currently Ukraine, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Belarus and Poland). Some transit countries are concerned that a long-term plan of the Kremlin is to attempt to exert political influence on them by threatening their gas supply without affecting supplies to Western Europe.

The fears are strengthened by the fact that Russia has refused to ratify the Energy Charter Treaty. Critics of Nord Stream say that Europe has become dangerously dependent on Russian natural gas, particularly since Russia could face problems meeting a surge in domestic as well as foreign demand.

In 2021, 45% of Europe's gas imports came from Russia.
Following several Russia–Ukraine gas disputes over gas prices, as well as foreign policy toward Eastern Europe, it has been noted that the gas supplies by Russia can be used as a political tool.

A Swedish Defense Research Agency study, finished in March 2007, counted over 55 incidents since 1991, most with "both political and economic underpinnings". In April 2006, Radosław Sikorski, then Poland's defense minister, compared the project to the infamous 1939 Nazi-Soviet Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
In his book ''The New Cold War: Putin's Russia and the Threat to the West'', published in 2008, Edward Lucas stated that "though Nord Stream's backers insist that the project is business pure and simple, this would be easier to believe if it were more transparent."

In the report published by the Fridtjof Nansen Institute in 2008, Norwegian researcher Bendik Solum Whist noted that Nord Stream AG was incorporated in Switzerland, "whose strict banking secrecy laws makes the project less transparent than it would have been if based within the EU". Secondly, the Russian energy sector "in general lacks transparency" and Gazprom "is no exception".

The Russian response has been that the pipeline increases Europe's energy security and that the criticism is caused by bitterness about the loss of significant transit revenues, as well as the loss of political influence that stems from the transit countries' ability to hold Russian gas supplies to Western Europe hostage to their local political agendas. It would reduce Russia's dependence on the transit countries as for the first time it would link Russia directly to Western Europe. According to Gazprom, the direct connection to Germany would decrease risks in the gas transit zones, including the political risk of cutting off Russian gas exports to Western Europe.

In response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Commission and International Energy Agency presented joint plans to reduce reliance on Russian energy, reduce Russian gas imports by two thirds within a year, and completely by 2030. On 18 May 2022, the European Union published plans to end its reliance on Russian oil, natural gas and coal by 2027.

Security and military aspects

Swedish military experts and several politicians, including former Minister for Defense Mikael Odenberg, have stated that the pipeline may cause a security policy problem for Sweden. According to Odenberg, the pipeline motivates the Russian navy's presence in the Swedish economic zone and the Russians can use this for military intelligence should they want to. Finnish military scholar Alpo Juntunen has said that even though the political discussion over Nord Stream in Finland concentrates on the various ecological aspects, there are clearly military implications to the pipeline that are not discussed openly in Finland.

More political concerns were raised when Vladimir Putin stated that the ecological safety of the pipeline project will be ensured by using the Baltic Fleet of the Russian Navy. German weekly '' Stern'' has reported that the fibre optic cable and repeater stations along the pipeline could theoretically also be used for espionage. Nord Stream AG asserted that a fibre-optic control cable was neither necessary nor technically planned.

Deputy Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of Gazprom Alexander Medvedev has dismissed these concerns, stating that "some objections are put forward that are laughable – political, military, or linked to spying. That is really surprising because in the modern world… it is laughable to say a gas-pipeline is a weapon in a spy-war".

Economic aspects

Russian and German officials have claimed that the pipeline leads to economic savings due to the elimination of transit fees (as transit countries would be bypassed), and a higher operating pressure of the offshore pipeline which leads to lower operating costs (by eliminating the necessity for expensive midway compressor stations). According to Ukrtransgaz in 2011, Ukraine alone will lose natural gas transit fees of up to $720 million per year from Nord Stream 1.

According to the Naftogaz chairman in 2019, Ukraine will lose $3 billion per year of natural gas transit fees from Nord Stream 2.
Gazprom has stated that it will divert of natural gas transported through Ukraine to Nord Stream.
Opponents say that the maintenance costs of a submarine pipeline are higher than for an overland route. In 1998, former Gazprom chairman Rem Vyakhirev claimed that the project was economically unfeasible.

As the Nord Stream pipeline crosses the waterway to Polish ports in Szczecin and Świnoujście, there were concerns that it will reduce the depth of the waterway leading to the ports. However, in 2011, the then-prime minister of Poland Donald Tusk, as well as several experts, confirmed that the Nord Stream pipeline does not block the development plans of Świnoujście and Szczecin ports.

Environmental aspects

The greatest environmental impact in connection with the pipeline results from the consumption of the transported gas, if it allows more imports to the EU. That would conflict with decarbonization efforts for climate protection. At a nominal capacity of , each pipe pair can cause carbon emissions of of annually.

For the Portovaya compressor station at the Russian beginning of Nord Stream 1 with a rating of 366 megawatts, emissions of around per annum are estimated, not including compressor stations for the gas pipelines within Russia.

Since the pressure loss is the square of the flow velocity, dividing an unchanged gas transport volume between two Nord Stream systems could save around of the pumping effort and presumably more than of emissions could be avoided annually. Using the discounted damage costs of from the German Environment Agency(), this would, after a rough estimate, enable the third tube to be amortized within around 20 years from a global point of view. Possibly also the fourth tube could be amortized in the hypothetical case of overall optimization of gas flow over various pipelines between Russia and the EU.

The production of over of steel for the Nord Stream 2 tubes resulted in more than of emissions, not including the concrete-coating and the associated pipeline sections onshore.

Before construction there were concerns that during construction the sea bed would be disturbed, dislodging World War II-era naval mines and toxic materials including mines, chemical waste, chemical munitions and other items dumped in the Baltic Sea in the past decades, and thereby toxic substances could surface from the seabed, damaging the Baltics' particularly sensitive ecosystem.

Swedish Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren demanded that the environmental analysis should include alternative ways of taking the pipeline across the Baltic, as the pipeline is projected to be passing through areas considered environmentally problematic and risky.

Sweden's three opposition parties called for an examination of the possibility of rerouting the pipeline onto dry land. Finnish environmental groups campaigned to consider the more southern route, claiming that the sea bed is flatter and so construction would be more straightforward, and therefore potentially less disruptive to waste, including dioxins and dioxin-like compounds, littered on the sea bed.

Latvian president Valdis Zatlers said that Nord Stream was environmentally hazardous as, unlike the North Sea, there is no such water circulation in the Baltic Sea. Ene Ergma, Speaker of the Parliament of Estonia ( et, Riigikogu), warned that the pipeline work rips a canal in the seabed which will demand leveling the sand that lies along the way, atomizing volcanic formations and disposing of fill along the bottom of the sea, altering sea currents.

The impact on bird and marine life in the Baltic Sea is also a concern, as the Baltic sea is recognized by the International Maritime Organization as a particularly sensitive sea area. The World Wide Fund for Nature requested that countries party to the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM) safeguard the Baltic marine habitats, which could be altered by the implementation of the Nord Stream project.
Its Finnish branch said it might file a court case against Nord Stream AG if the company did not properly assess a potential alternative route on the southern side of Hogland. According to Nord Stream AG, this was not a suitable route for the pipeline because of the planned conservation area near Hogland, subsea cables, and a main shipping route.

Russian environmental organizations warned that the ecosystem in the Eastern part of the Gulf of Finland is the most vulnerable part of the Baltic Sea and assumed damage to the island territory of the planned Ingermanland nature preserve as a result of laying the pipeline. Swedish environmental groups are concerned that the pipeline is planned to pass too closely to the border of the marine reserve near Gotland.
Greenpeace is also concerned that the pipeline would pass through several sites designated as marine conservation areas.

In April 2007, the Young Conservative League (YCL) of Lithuania started an online petition entitled "Protect the Baltic Sea While It's Still Not Too Late!", translated into all state languages of the countries of the Baltic region. On 29 January 2008 the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament organized a public hearing on the petition introduced by the leader of YCLRadvile Morkunaite. On 8 July 2008, the European Parliament endorsed, by 542 votes to 60, a non-binding report calling on the European Commission to evaluate the additional impact on the Baltic Sea caused by the Nord Stream project.
The Riigikogu made a declaration on 27 October 2009, expressing "concern over the possible environmental impacts of the gas line" and emphasizing that international conventions have deemed "the Baltic Sea in an especially vulnerable environmental status".Riigikogu avaldus. Läänemerre kavandatava gaasijuhtmega seotud keskkonnariskidest
Declaration of the Riigikogu. On environmental hazards connected with the gas line planned into the Baltic Sea. In Estonian. The Riigikogu 27 October 2009

Russian officials described these concerns as far-fetched and politically motivated by opponents of the project. They argued that during the construction the seabed will be cleaned, rather than endangered. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has claimed that Russia fully respects the desire to provide for the 100% environmental sustainability of the project and that Russia is fully supportive of such an approach, and that all environmental concerns would be addressed in the process of environmental impact assessment.

Concerns were raised, since originally Nord Stream AG planned on rinsing out the pipeline with of a solution containing glutaraldehyde, which would be pumped afterward into the Baltic Sea. Nord Stream AG responded that glutaraldehyde would not be used, and even if the chemical were used, the effects would be brief and localized due to the speed with which the chemical breaks down once it comes in contact with water.

One of the problems raised was that the Baltic Sea and particularly Gulf of Finland was heavily mined during World War I and II, with many mines still in the sea.
According to Marin Mätteknik, around 85,000 mines were laid during the First and Second World Wars, of which only half have been recovered. A lot of munitions have also been dumped in this sea. Critics of the pipeline voiced fears that the pipeline would disturb ammunition dumps. In November 2008 it was reported that the pipeline will run through old sea mine defense lines and that the Gulf of Finland is considered one of the most heavily mined sea areas in the world.

Sunken mines, which have been found on the pipeline route, lay primarily in international waters at a depth of more than . Nord Stream AG detonated the mines underwater.

Ethical issues

The former Chancellor of Germany, Gerhard Schröder, and the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, were strong advocates of the pipeline project during the negotiation phase. International media alluded to a past relationship between the managing director of Nord Stream AG, Matthias Warnig, himself a former East German secret police officer, and Vladimir Putin when he was a KGB agent in East Germany.


These allegations were denied by Matthias Warnig, who said that he had met Vladimir Putin for the first time in his life in 1991, when Putin was the head of the Committee for External Relations of the Saint Petersburg Mayor's Office.

The agreement to build the pipeline was signed ten days before the German parliamentary election. On 24 October 2005, a few weeks before Schröder had stepped down as Chancellor, the German government guaranteed to cover €1 billion of the Nord Stream project cost, should Gazprom default on a loan. However, this guarantee expired at the end of 2006 without ever having been needed.

Soon after leaving the post of Chancellor of Germany, Gerhard Schröder agreed to head the shareholders' committee of Nord Stream AG. This has been widely described by German and international media as a conflict of interest,


the implication being that the pipeline project may have been pushed through for personal gain rather than for improving gas supplies to Germany. Information about the German government's guarantee was requested by the European Commission. No formal charges have been filed against any party despite years of exhaustive investigations.

In February 2009, the Swedish prosecutor's office started an investigation based on suspicions of bribery and corruption after a college on the island of Gotland received a donation from Nord Stream. The 5 million Swedish kronor (US$574,000) donation was directed to a professor at Gotland University College who had previously warned that the Nord Stream pipeline would come too close to a sensitive bird zone.
The consortium has hired several former high-ranking officials, such as Ulrica Schenström, former undersecretary at the Swedish Prime Minister's office, and Dan Svanell, former press secretary for several politicians in the Swedish Social Democratic Party. In addition, the former Prime Minister of Finland, Paavo Lipponen, had worked for Nord Stream as an adviser since 2008.

Land-based alternatives

On 11 January 2007, the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Finland made a statement on the environmental impact assessment program of the Russia-Germany natural gas pipeline, in which it mentioned that alternative routes via Latvia, Lithuania, Kaliningrad and/or Poland might theoretically be shorter than the route across the Baltic Sea, would be easier to flexibly increase the capacity of the pipeline, and might have better financial results.
There were calls from Sweden to consider rerouting the pipeline onto dry land.

Poland had proposed the construction of a second line of the Yamal–Europe pipeline, as well as the Amber pipeline through Latvia, Lithuania and Poland as land-based alternatives to the offshore pipeline. The Amber project foresees laying a natural gas pipeline across the Tver, Novgorod and Pskov oblasts in Russia and then through Latvia and Lithuania to Poland, where it would be re-connected to the Yamal–Europe pipeline. Latvia has proposed using its underground gas storage facilities if the onshore route were to be used. Proponents have claimed that the Amber pipeline would cost half as much as an underwater pipeline, would be shorter, and would have less environmental impact.

Critics of this proposal say that in this case it would be more expensive for the suppliers over the long-term perspective, because the main aim of the project is to reduce transit costs.
Nord Stream AG has responded that the Baltic Sea would be the only route for the pipeline and it will not consider an overland alternative.

World War II graves

In May 2008, a former member of the European Parliament from Estonia, Andres Tarand, has raised the issue that the Nord Stream pipeline could disturb World War II graves dating from naval battles in 1941. A Nord Stream spokesman has stated that only one sunken ship is in the vicinity of the planned pipeline and added that it would not be disturbed. In July 2008 it was announced that one of DOF Subsea's seismic vessels had discovered the wreck of a submarine with Soviet markings, believed to have sunk during World War II, during a survey for the planned Nord Stream pipeline in Finland's exclusive economic zone in the Gulf of Finland.

In addition to the wreck of the Soviet submarine, there are sunken ships on the route of Nord Stream in the Bay of Greifswald and in the Gulf of Finland. A ship in the Bay of Greifswald is one of 20 sunk in 1715 by the Swedish navy to create a physical barrier across the shallow entrance to the Bay of Greifswald coastal lagoon. Russian archaeologists claimed that the ship in the Gulf of Finland "was probably built in 1710 and sank during a raid aimed at conquering Finland" in 1713 during the reign of Peter the Great.

See also

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References

External links

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Sweden and the NEGP: A Pilot Study of the North European Gas Pipeline and Sweden's Dependence on Russian Energy
(PDF) Base data report by Robert L. Larsson. June 2006

Map of the disputed between Poland and Danmark zone


Original letter from Poland about the disputed area of the Baltic sea bottom
(PDF)

Protect the Baltic Sea
A petition demanding an independent environmental impact assessment of the Nord Stream gas pipeline project
* A. Łoskot-Strachota, Ł. Antas
Nord-Stream on the liberalizing EU-gas-market
Center for Eastern Studies, March 2010

"Sea Change"
(PDF) (Spektrum der Wissenschaft ''Custom Publishing'', 2011)

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