Pipeliners

19 April 2007 - Upstream staff - Latvia's economy minister said his government would back a gas pipeline under the Baltic sea if the project respected the environment, and suggested a branch line could be built to a planned gas storage facility in the country. Latvia had to see positive results from the environmental impact assessment which is to be carried out by pipeline builder Nord Stream, half owned by Gazprom, Jurijs Strods said. "That has to be there because that (possible problems) could affect all countries, ours as well, and pollute the sea," he told Reuters during a visit to the Swedish capital. Lithuania has called for an independent environmental impact assessment of the pipe, while Poland has said the project could allow Russia to divert gas away from the transit pipelines that it sees as a guarantee of its energy security. Sweden has been alone in raising security issues linked to what it fears could be a possible Russian military presence in the Baltic Sea. Possible environmental issues the consortium has to look at include old ammunition dumped on the seabed, the effect of constructing the pipe on the sea floor and whether it will have an impact on fishing. Strods said Latvia had suggested the possibility to the consortium of a branch pipeline to the central Latvian town of Dobele, where a survey is being carried out on the construction of an underground storage facility. The size of the facility, which would be not just for Latvia's use but also for the surrounding region in north-east Europe, could be about 10 billion cubic metres, he said. No branch lines from the pipe are currently planned. "Do they want that? I don't know, but we are telling them about it and saying it is possible," Strods added. He said the consortium's response had been that it wanted to see the finished results of the Dobele survey. Latvia already has a large gas storage facility at the town of Incukalns. Nord Stream, which also includes Germany's BASF and E.ON , plans to start constructing the first leg of the pipeline with a 1210 kilometre underwater section in 2008. It aims to begin pumping 27.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas in 2010, though it still awaits construction permits from, among others, Finland, Sweden and Germany.