BRUSSELS, January 18 (RIA Novosti, Alexander Shishlo) - The precise location of the $5.7-billion underground gas storage facility in Belgium that would pump Russian natural gas to Western Europe is under consideration, Russian Ambassador to Belgium Vadim Lukov said Wednesday.
However, the 500-million cu m storage facility, designed to ensure gas deliveries through a Russian pipeline to Great Britain, is expected to be operational in 2010, Lukov said.
According to the ambassador, Belgian and Dutch companies have expressed interest in the project. He did not exclude the possibility of using the storage facility as a terminal for exports of Russian gas to countries that would include Belgium.
Lukov highlighted expanding economic ties between Russia and Belgium. According to preliminary data, Russian-Belgian trade in 2005 increased 30% year-on-year, reaching 6 billion euros ($7.3 billion).
Russian energy giant Gazprom and a number of Belgian energy companies have reportedly formed the Belgian Underground Gas Storage (BUGS), which has already received permission to build the facility in the Campine area near the Belgian port of Antwerp.
Lukov said Gazprom has built 63 underground gas storage facilities outside Russia.
The provisional deadline for the construction of the facility coincides with the deadline for commissioning of the North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP), a pet project of Gazprom's top officials, which would allow Gazprom to diversify its export routes and bring natural gas to Western Europe, avoiding transit states along its route and pumping gas under the Baltic Sea directly to Germany.
