After four years of technical and finance deals, the US$12.3bn Nord Stream natural gas pipeline project has begun construction on schedule.
Attending the symbolic welding of two pipeline segments at the gas line’s starting point at Portovaya Bay, near Vyborg, Russia, was Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the EU commissioner for energy Günther Oettinger and Nord Stream’s consortium of shareholders.
Speaking of the international importance of the pipeline, President Medvedev comments: “I am confident that the Nord Stream gas pipeline will become another link between Russia and Europe. Its construction meets our long-term goals and, I would like to emphasise this point, it corresponds to the objective of developing our national economies and this is our contribution into Europe’s energy security.”
Financial analysts Dealogic recently revealed that the deal was the biggest of Q1 2010.
The first of the pipeline’s 100,000 25-tonne 12 metre pipe sections were laid by the pipe-lay vessel Castoro Sei, 18.5 miles (30km) off the coast of Sweden’s Gotland Island in the Baltic Sea.
The Castoro Sei is laying the pipeline at a rate of 1.5 miles a day, moving towards Finnish waters.
The deal, originally reported in GTR, is a significant step in creating a more unified Europe and CIS region, as Nord Stream’s managing director, Matthias Warnig, explains: “Our pipeline will provide a direct link from [Russia] to Germany’s Baltic coast and from there on to gas consumers right across Europe. It will stand as a testimony to sustained and successful collaboration over many years between many countries.
“But it is much more than an energy infrastructure project; the pipeline project is also an important symbol of the political, economic and cultural ties that will bind our nations and our peoples even closer.”
Reader Comments