Estonia rejects Nord Stream survey request

Estonia’s Prime Minister has confirmed the country has rejected a request by Russia-led consortium Nord Stream AG to survey its waters for a potential expansion route for a pipeline.

Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said his country had the right to refuse permission for research that may reveal proprietary information about natural resources. Earlier in October, Estonia’s Defence Minister told local media that research and construction of pipelines posed a security risk. Estonia refused a similar request back in 2007.

In a statement, Nord Stream said it “fully respects [the] decision to refuse a survey permit in Estonia. This means that no survey will be conducted and consequently there will be no opportunity to build any part of the pipelines in the Estonian EEZ. Nord Stream AG will now concentrate on developing further the Finnish route alternative in the Gulf of Finland.”

Despite falling demand and regulatory pressure, Nord Stream majority shareholder OAO Gazprom is boosting its gas transit capacity to the EU, its most lucrative market. The Russian state-controlled gas export monopoly is also set to launch construction of South Stream, which will transit up to 63 billion m³/yr of gas to Southern Europe via the Black Sea from 2018. Nord Stream, consisting of twin pipelines with the capacity to transport a combined total of 55 billion m³/yr of gas, was fully completed in October 2012.

Edited from various sources by Cecilia Rehn.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/07122012/estonia_rejects_nord_stream_survey_request/