Swedish government sends back Nord Stream gas pipeline application, demands clarification on environmental impact

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The Swedish government has refused to handle the gas pipeline application put forward by the Russian-German Nord Stream consortium until such time as the application has been extensively modified, for instance with the addition of data on the environmental impact of the project.
      The news was given out on Tuesday by the country’s Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren.
     
Carlgren stated that the present application had so many shortcomings that it would not even be circulated to ministries and official bodies for comments, but that in effect it was being sent back as such. He expressed his own personal surprise at the lack of detail in the document.
      Nord Stream proposes to build a gas pipeline on the bed of the Baltic Sea from Vyborg in Russia to Greifswald in Germany, capable of carrying up to 55 billion cubic metres of gas annually. Nord Stream is a joint venture owned by the Russian Gazprom (51%), BASF and E.ON (20% each), and N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie (9%).
      For part of the length of the pipeline it will run through the Swedish Economic Zone, and there has earlier been controversy over plans to erect a 35-metre-high service platform some 90km to the north-east of the Swedish island of Gotland.
      Construction work on the pipeline should start already in 2009.
     
Nord Stream put in its application to the government in Stockholm just before Christmas last year.
      Carlgren would not speculate on how long the application process might take, since it has not really even started in the Swedish case.
      The Swedes are calling for several substantial updates to the paper that was presented. Alternative routes are requested, as well as the so-called zero option, of a scenario where the pipeline would not be laid on the seabed at all.
      Minister Carlgren noted that the environmental considerations of alternative routes would have to be considered, and it would need to be shown that the route selected was the one causing least adverse effects.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Estonian Foreign Minister wants Russia-Germany gas pipeline to run on land (29.10.2007)
  Swedish ex-diplomat: Alternatives for undersea gas pipeline must be found (1.3.2007)
  Sweden and Lithuania do not accept planned routing of gas pipeline (20.2.2007)
  Environmental impact of Baltic Sea pipeline greatest in building phase (15.11.2006)
  Cost of Baltic Sea gas pipeline looks to be higher than expected (8.1.2008)

Links:
  Nord Stream
  Nord Stream (Wikipedia)

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