Nord Stream, the company that is planning to build a pipeline under the Baltic Sea to bring gas from Russia to Germany, has said it is going to cost more than the original estimate of five billion euros. How much more it hopes to reveal in March.
At a news conference, Nord Stream's boss Dirk von Ameln said they still plan to start work on the pipeline next year. It should then be complete in 2010 and open the following year. It will run for 1,200 kilometres from Vyborg in Russia to Greifswald in Germany bypassing current routes through Poland, Belarus and Ukraine.
Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Sweden have raised ecological and other concerns about the project. Estonia has already refused to allow the pipeline to pass through its waters. Sweden said it will look "very closely" at the effect on the Baltic Sea's sensitive environment. But Nord Stream says it is so confident of getting permission from the various countries that it's already ordered the pipes.
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