08.11 Nord Stream Gas Pipeline: Facts and Figures
MOSCOW, November 8 (RIA Novosti) - November 8th, 2014 marks the third anniversary of the launch ceremony for the first leg of the Nord Stream – a long-distance gas pipeline directly connecting Russia with Germany.
Nord Stream's target markets include Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Denmark and other countries.
The gas pipeline is comprised of two legs 1,224 km (760 miles) long with a capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year each.
Two pipeline legs run across the bottom of the Baltic Sea from Portovaya Bay near the city of Vyborg, Leningrad Region, Russia, to the coast of Germany near the town of Greifswald.
The Yuzhno-Russkoye field with the design capacity of 25 billion cubic metres of gas per year is the main source of natural gas for the Nord Stream. The field is located in the Krasnoselkupsky District, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area, Russia.
Nord Stream will play an important role in ensuring secure natural gas supplies and meeting the additional gas demand in Europe. This route will bypass the occasionally unpredictable transit countries.
Nord Stream AG, Switzerland, a gas transport company, was created for planning, building, owning, financing and operating the pipeline.
With a 51 percent stake Russia's Gazprom is the majority shareholder in the project. The leading German energy companies Wintershall Holding GmbH and E.ON Ruhrgas AG own 15.5 percent each. The Dutch infrastructure company NV Nederlandse Gasunie and the leading French energy company GDF SUEZ own 9 percent each.
The total investment in the Nord Stream is 7.4 billion euros. The shareholders provided 30 percent of the project budget in proportion to their shares in the consortium. The remaining 70 percent was attracted from external sources, such as banks and export credit agencies in the form of project financing. The financing was attracted in two stages. For the first phase of the project, the necessary funds in the amount of 3.9 billion euros were attracted in March 2010. For the second phase, the funding in the amount of 2.5 billion euros was completed in March 2011.
Nord Stream is unique for being a cross-border pipeline. It passes through the territorial waters and/or the exclusive economic zones of Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany.
According to the requirements of the public authorities of the Baltic Sea countries, Nord Stream has developed a comprehensive environmental monitoring program, which was launched concurrently with the construction of the pipeline in April 2010 and will continue through 2016.
All five countries have provided the necessary permits for the project prior to the construction, preceded by major international consultations. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland could be impacted by the Nord Stream pipeline as a cross-border project and participated in the process of consultations and approvals.
In August 2012, Nord Stream sent a letter to the Estonian Foreign Ministry requesting the authorities to grant a permit to research a 4-km wide corridor in Estonia's economic zone in the Baltic Sea. The goal of the research is to evaluate the possibility of building a third and, perhaps, a fourth leg of Nord Stream.
The Academy of Sciences and the Defense Ministry strongly opposed the research. The Estonian Foreign Ministry is expected to respond before December 23.
On April 9, 2010, Gazprom officially opened the construction of the Nord Stream. The ceremony was attended by Russian then-President Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister of the Netherlands Jan Peter Balkenende, European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger, former German Chancellor and Chairman of the Shareholders Committee of the Nord Stream AG project operator Gerhard Schroeder, head of Gazprom Alexei Miller and Managing Director of Nord Stream AG Matthias Warnig.
On August 19, 2011, the last so-called "golden" junction of the first Nord Stream"s leg was completed.
The golden junction connected the coastal part of the leg on the Russian coast in the Portovaya Bay with a section crossing the Baltic Sea bottom to the German coast.
On September 6, the Nord Stream was filled with process gas.
On November 8, 2011, the grand opening of the first leg of the Nord Stream pipeline was held in the German town of Lubmin.
The construction of the second parallel leg began in May 2011.
In August 2012, the last junction of the second leg was welded. On October 8, 2012, the second phase of Nord Stream was put into operation.
The pipeline's capacity was increased to 55 billion cubic meters per year.
From November 2011 to October 1, 2012, Nord Stream was used to export 8.7 billion cubic meters of gas. On November 1, 2012, commercial gas deliveries began on the second branch of the Nord Stream in Germany – the NEL pipeline.
Just like the other branch – OPAL, NEL connects the Nord Stream with the European gas infrastructure. The pipeline is 440 kilometers long with the capacity of 20 billion cubic meters. The project shareholders include Wingas (a joint venture between Gazprom and Wintershall) 51 percent, N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie 20 percent, Fluxys 19 percent and E.ON 10 percent.
