Nord Stream eyes green light from Sweden
Pressure is mounting on Sweden to approve the plans for the Nord Stream pipeline. Despite major skepticism, the Swedish government will eventually have to approve the Baltic Sea project.
After a meeting with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov last week, Swedish Minister of Industry Maud Olofsson admitted that pressure is mounting on Sweden to approve the pipeline project, newspaper Dagens Nyheter reports.
Mr. Zubkov, who is also Chairman of the Gazprom board of directors, says that the Russian side has complied with all Swedish remarks in the project, Rossiiskaya Gazeta reports. He expresses confidence that the Swedish side now finally will approve the project.
The route of the underwater pipeline will be changed in order to avoid places with dumped war-time chemicals and the laying of the pipeline will be conducted with vessel which do not need to anchor up. In addition, the Nord-Stream company will not construct a service platform planned station near the Swedish coast.
The 1220 km long Nord Stream pipeline has spurred fierce debate in several of the countries along the Baltic Sea. Sweden has been opposed to the pipeline, which the government believes might harm marine environment in the area. Meanwhile, a number of powerful EU countries support the project, seeing it as a vital new import route for gas.
The Nord Stream is planned linked up with a pipeline from the Shtokman field in the Barents Sea.
