The Baltic Energy Bridge project will see the construction of two on-shore converter stations and the installation of a 150-kilometer (93-mile) cable network across the floor of the Gulf of Finland to supply the Scandinavian state with up to 8.7 billion kWh of electricity a year.
After the agreement was signed, VEB Chairman Vladimir Dmitriyev said the bank would provide consulting on all the project's economic and financial matters and represent the interests of Baltenergo at talks with banks and foreign financial institutions on the project's financing and implementation.
"If the project takes off, we'll also participate in it from the viewpoint of financing," Dmitriyev said.
Dmitry Mashkovtsev, the general director of Baltenergo, a Leningrad NPP subsidiary in Russia's northwest, said the project was estimated at 300 million euros ($379 million) with a recoupment period of 6-7 years. The cable is expected to be put into operation in 2009-2010, he said.
Finland's Industry and Trade Minister Mauri Pekkarinen said earlier his ministry would make a final decision on the project in early September.
