Nord Stream gas pipeline through Baltic Sea gets German approval

BERLIN - German authorities granted formal approval on Dec. 28 for construction of a pipeline to transport natural gas under the Baltic Sea from Russia.
Only one permit from Finland is still required, the company running the project said.
Nord Stream AG said Germany's Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency granted a permit to build a 19-mile stretch of the pipeline in Germany's exclusive economic zone.
Nord Stream already has a second German permit covering the 31-mile section in German territorial waters, and has permits from Denmark, Sweden and Russia, through whose waters the pipeline will pass.
"We are firmly on schedule to start construction of the pipeline in spring 2010 and to start transporting gas in 2011," Nord Stream managing director Matthias Warnig said in a statement.
The only permit still outstanding for the $10.6 billion project is one of two required from Finland, the consortium said.
Once completed, the 750-mile pipeline is expected to carry 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year from the Russian port of Vyborg to the German port of Greifswald.