SOME FACTS ABOUT NORTH EUROPEAN GAS PIPELINE
By Alexander Fedorov, CCB Newsletter editor

Russian news agencies reported about the start of construction of the North European Gas Pipeline (NRGP) as yearly as on 22 August, 2005. However, the official starting ceremony was held only on 9 December near the village Babayevo in Vologda Region, 800 km from St.Petersburg.

The European Commission granted the status of a trans-European project to the North European gas pipeline in December 2000. In November 2002, the European Commission and Gazprom reached agreement on the beginning of the implementation of the project. The presentation of the project was held in December 2002.

The HELCOM HOD18 meeting in Helsinki on 12-13 December 2005 was the first public who had a chance to hear the presentation by the recently established Russian German Gas Consortium on the planned future activities to estimate the environmental impacts when constructing a North European Gas pipeline. You can view the presentation by the Consortium here.

The North European gas pipeline, with its total capacity of 55 billion cubic metres per year, is going to be the largest in Europe. The onshore section of the pipeline will run 917 km to the port of Vyborg before heading under the sea for the remaining 1,200 km to Greifswald in Germany. The offshore part of the pipeline will be laid on the bottom of the Baltic Sea, with lateral pipelines connecting the main one with the Kaliningrad Region, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Britain.

It is planned to put the North European gas pipeline in operation in 2010. Total investments in the project will exceed four billion euros. The Yuzhno-Russky gas field, situated in the eastern part of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area, will be the main supplier of gas for the new gas pipeline.

The North European gas pipeline will create an entirely new route for the export of Russian gas to Europe, the absence of transit countries being its characteristic feature. The route will help Russia to shed its reliance on Ukrainian transit pipes. Presently, about 80% of Gazprom's supplies to Europe pass through Ukraine.

Gazprom accounts for about one third of overall gas imports of Western Europe, which is the main market for Russian gas. A total of 140.5 billion cubic metres of gas were delivered there in 2004. The key importers of Russian gas were Germany (36.1 billion m3), Italy (21.6 billion m3) Turkey (14.5 billion m3) and France (13.3 billion m3). The other European importers of Russian gas are Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Austria, Finland, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Bosnia, Macedonia, Britain, Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Armenia and Ukraine.

Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have raised questions about the environmental impact of laying a pipeline on the sea bed, a dumping ground for cold-war munitions and chemical weapons. Gazprom spokesman stated that the company would not commit itself to "fishing out" and decontaminating any chemical waste from the Baltic Sea, but that it would ensure the pipeline was routed to bypass all such environmentally hazardous dumps.

According to expert estimates, 267,000 tons of combat ammunition was dumped into the sea in postwar years. US Navy dumped 42 ships with 130 000 tons of chemical weapons in Skagerrak and Kattegat. British Navy dumped 8 000 tons of chemical weapons to the East of Bornholm, and 15 000 tons to the West from this Danish island. Soviet Navy dumped 35 000 tons of chemical bombs and shells in the region located 35 nautical miles to the East from Bornholm.

The Baltic Sea also 'hosts' enormous number of mines. For example, over 60 000 of them were put in the Gulf of Finland during the Second World War. Most of the mines have already exploded because of migrating ice, but many of them may be located on the seabed. During the last 10 years, 344 old mines were found and destroyed in the mine clearing operations in the eastern parts of the Baltic Sea.

Coalition Clean Baltic could contribute in ensuring environmental safety of this enormous NEGP project to be implemented in the Baltic Sea.