Nord Stream makes Sweden plan application

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- The operator of the project to pump Russian gas to Germany has officially applied to Stockholm to lay pipeline beneath its Baltic Sea waters.

Nord Stream, a partnership between Russian state-owned Gazprom and Germany's E.ON and BASF, must now navigate the political waves of Sweden, which has so far been in opposition to the project for fears of environmental catastrophe.

"The company has handed in an application for the construction of the pipelines, including a technical description in accordance with the Swedish Continental Shelf Act," the company said in a statement.

The $12 billion project would have the capacity to send 2.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas through 746 miles of pipelines.

Seventy percent of the parliamentarians responding to a recent Radio Sweden poll opposed the project.

Sixty-six percent of Sweden's 349 parliamentarians responded to the Radio Sweden survey. Ten percent support the 746-mile pipeline, with the rest undecided.

Opposition leaders fear unexploded bombs, including chemical and biological weapons dumped in the sea after World War II, could detonate.