BERLIN, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- The Nord Stream natural gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea to Germany will go into operation by October 2011, the head of the pipeline consortium said.
Gerhard Schroeder, former German chancellor and chair of the Nord Stream shareholders committee, said in meetings with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin the project was moving forward to the start of pumping gas across the Baltic Sea, the Barents Observer reported.
Nord Stream is a planned natural gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany. The majority shareholder is Russian energy giant Gazprom, with the German Wintershall owning a 20 percent stake in the pipeline consortium.
The Baltic Sea is clogged with some 100,000 tons of unexploded ordnance and more than 2,000 shipwrecks, causing worry over the Nord Stream route. The government of Finland granted the Nord Stream pipeline consortium an extension on permits to survey the Baltic Sea bed.
Schroeder said the Nord Stream project was an effective way of bringing natural gas to Europe. He said it adds to plans to diversify the European energy sector and is not a rival to the Western-backed Nabucco pipeline.
