Russia Starts Filling Nord Stream Gas Pipe
By EurActiv
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said yesterday (5 September) that his country would begin pumping the first technical gas through the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline from today, so that European clients could start receiving supplies in October or November.
“Tomorrow we will start pumping technical gas near Vyborg,” Putin said on Monday (5 September) at a meeting of his governing United Russia party, referring to the gas flows needed to start supplies.
The 7.4-billion-euro, 1,220-kilometre pipeline aims to deliver 55 billion cubic metres of gas per year, linking Russia’s Vyborg, a city 130 kilometres northwest of St. Petersburg, to the German city of Greifswald.
Constructed under the Baltic, the pipeline will run past the coasts of Finland, Sweden and Denmark (see ‘Background’).
The project was heavily backed by former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who now chairs the Nord Stream shareholders’ committee.
In a reference to Ukraine, with whom Russia is entangled in another gas pricing dispute, Putin indicated that his country was following a strategy to bypass problematic transit countries.
“Gradually, in a calm manner we are departing from the diktat of transit states,” Putin said, quoted by AFP.
EU to speak with one voice to Russia?
In the meantime, the European Commission is preparing measures to boost its own powers in energy relations with non-EU countries such as Russia.
According to a draft Commission proposal, EU governments will for the first time have to notify Brussels of planned bilateral energy pacts with foreign countries, allowing the executive to scrutinise such deals.
The Commission will for the first time be able to request the power to negotiate energy deals on behalf of the 27-member bloc where agreements will have repercussions for the whole EU, according to the draft.
The executive will also push for deeper relations between the EU, Russia and Ukraine to avoid a repeat of the January 2009 dispute between Kyiv and Moscow, which saw supplies to consumers briefly cut off in Poland and other EU states, the draft indicates.
