Counting the cost: Gerhard Schroeder
Nord Stream costs set to soar
Nord Stream, majority owned by Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom , has said it would take at least €5 billion ($7.3 billion) to build the 1200-kilometre pipeline under the Baltic Sea from Russian to Germany.
"We are most likely to increase the estimated costs of the project in early 2008, after we complete evaluation of four main expense categories, such as pipes, pipe-laying, logistics and environment," said a spokeswoman.
She said the main reason for the review was steep increase in steel prices since costs were first estimated in 2005.
Another Nord Stream spokeswoman in Switzerland, where the group is based, confirmed it would only be possible to make a new cost estimate in February or March.
Nord Stream could not say how much costs might rise, but media on Wednesday quoted Germany's former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, as saying in New York that they might balloon to €8 billion ($11.8 billion). Schroeder chairs the supervisory board of the Nord Stream consortium.