Finland doesn’t mind the construction of new branches of Nord Stream
Finland doesn’t mind the further economic integration of Russia and the EU, including by means of the construction of new branches of the Nord Stream gas pipeline. The Prime Minister of Finland, Y. Katainen, said on the results of the meeting with D. Medvedev.
Finland doesn’t have anything against the economic integration of Russia and the EU and the energy routes are the key central part of this integration. From our point of view, the main thing at the consideration of such issues is the ecological constituent part, it is of the main importance, he said answering the question about Finland’s position concerning the construction of the 3rd and 4th branches of the Nord Stream.
The Prime Minister of Russia, D. Medvedev said the construction of the 1st two branches of the gas pipeline hasn’t done any harm to the ecology.
After the construction of the first two lines I can say that not only everything is met by the set standards, but the general ecological situation is much better than the experts thought it to be, he said.
The memorandum by 2 new branches of the Nord Stream, connecting Russia and Germany via the bottom of the Baltic Sea, is planned to be signed until Jan 31st and one branch might go to Great Britain.
The first stage of the gas pipeline was launched on November 8th 2011, the 2nd – on October 8th 2012. The shareholders of the project’s operator- Nord Stream AG - are Gazprom (51%), Wintershall Holding and E.ON Ruhrgas (15.5% each), GDF Suez and Gasunie (9% each). Nord Stream with the length of 1.2 thousand km supplies the Russian gas to Germany. The 1.22 thousand km long gas pipeline goes via the bottom of the Baltic Sea from Russia (Vyborg) to Germany (Greiswald). Before the launch of this route the Russian gas had been supplied to the Western Europe by 2 routes – via Belarus and then Poland, and via the Ukraine and Slovakia. With the launch of the 1st line of the Nord Stream the Russian gas started to be directly shipped to Germany and other countries of the Western Europe.
The 1st line of the gas pipeline was loaded only by 30-40% of the maximum capacity during the first year of operation – 9 bln cubic meters of gas, RIA Novosti reports.
http://www.angi.ru/news.shtml?oid=2794802
Translated by Galiya Musabekova
