Pipeliners

25/01/2007 - RZD News - Any gas or oil pipelines across the floor of the Caspian Sea would be environmentally unacceptable, an official with the Russian Natural Resources Ministry said Thursday. Since the early 2000s, the ex-Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have been considering projects to lay natural gas or oil pipelines across the bed of the Caspian Sea and bypassing Russia. However, Moscow has consistently opposed the idea, citing environmental concerns. Although Russia opposes any pipeline projects across the floor of the Caspian Sea, it has been constructing a natural gas pipeline under the $10.5-billion North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP) project to supply Western Europe with gas via a pipeline leading from Russia to Germany across the floor of the Baltic Sea, reports RIA Novosti.