Pipeliners

BABAYEVO (Vologda Region), December 9 (RIA Novosti) - A third foreign partner in North European Gas Pipeline Company (NEGPC) may obtain a 9% stake in the joint venture, with Russian energy giant Gazprom maintaining a controlling stake, the chairman of a German company involved in the project said Friday. E.ON. Chairman Wulf Bernotat said a consolidated decision would be made on the issue. The Russian-German joint venture NEGPC is to build a pipeline from Russia to Europe under the Baltic Sea. Bernotat said none of the firms seeking participation in the project had yet been approved. Gazprom holds a 51% stake in NEGPC, while Germany's BASF and E.ON AG own 24.5% each. The agreement to build the 4.7 billion euro 1200-km NEGP was signed September 8 by Gazprom and the two German companies. The first leg of the pipeline, connecting the Baltic seashore near the Russian city of Vyborg with Germany's Greifswald region, is set to come on-stream in 2010. Offshoots may then be built to link it with the Kaliningrad Region (Russia's exclave within the EU), Scandinavia and the UK.