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Tuesday, 07 October, 2008, 07:40 GMT | more prices >>

States ‘should not politicise’ Baltic Pipe



By Upstream staff 

Moscow backs the building of a gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea as a way to boost European energy security and countries in the region should not politicise this economic project, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

The Nord Stream pipe, led by Gazprom and involving Germany's E.ON and BASF as well as Dutch company Gasunie, has sparked worries in countries including Poland, Lithuania and Estonia.

Some have expressed fears Russia could use it to exert political pressure in the future as it would allow Russia's gas pipeline monopoly Gazprom to bypass their territories when shipping gas to European markets.

There have also been concerns that the pipeline project could lead to environmental damage to the Baltic.

"Our wish is that the issues of the further development of energy co-operation in Europe would be considered in as de-politicised a way as possible," Reuters reported Lavrov told a news conference today.

"We are now witnessing attempts to politicise the Nord Stream project, which Russia has always supported as a project that would increase energy security in Europe," he said.

He was visiting the Latvian capital, Riga, to finalise a border agreement with the Baltic state.

Lavrov said Nord Stream would be in line with all economic and environmental standards and that it was backed by the EU.

Warsaw in particular has spoken out against the pipeline project, fearing that Russia's more muscular use of its energy resources could eventually result in it using the Baltic gas pipe to avoid shipping gas via Poland to western Europe.

Nord Stream initially estimated the cost of the project at 5 billion euros ($7.2 billion), but last week said it would revise this figure upwards.

Nord Stream is expected to be able to cover more than a quarter of Europe's incremental gas demand by annually shipping 27.5 billion cubic metres of gas a year from 2010, with a second pipeline to double its capacity to 55 Bcm.

Latvian Foreign Minister Maris Riekstins said his country was happy with energy co-operation with Russia and noted that the Latvian Incukalns gas storage facility, with capacity of 4.5 Bcm, was also used to supply parts of Russia.


Tuesday, 18 December, 2007, 17:41 GMT  | last updated: Tuesday, 18 December, 2007, 17:41 GMT

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