- Sputnik International
Russia
The latest news and stories from Russia. Stay tuned for updates and breaking news on defense, politics, economy and more.

Nord Stream pipe could be gas supply alternative - Gazprom

Subscribe
BERLIN, May 23 (RIA Novosti) - The Nord Stream gas pipeline to run from Russia to Europe along the Baltic seabed could be used to reroute gas supplies or pump extra gas, a senior Gazprom official said Wednesday.

The Nord Stream project led by energy giant Gazprom includes two parallel legs measuring 750 miles each. The first leg of the pipeline, with an annual capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters, is set to come online in 2010, and the second will double capacity to 55 bln cu m.

Currently, only 20 billion cubic meters out of the total 55 billion cubic meters have been contracted, said Sergei Chelpanov, deputy general director of Gazprom Export, the export arm of Gazprom.

"The [remaining] 35 billion cubic meters could be used for various needs, if required," Chelpanov told an international conference on the Russia-EU energy dialog in Berlin.

Chelpanov said these volumes could be used to reroute gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine, if the Ukrainian gas transportation system fails.

The Urengoi-Uzhgorod natural gas trunk pipeline in Ukraine was damaged by an explosion due to technical reasons May 7, but Russia's energy giant Gazprom said gas flows to European consumers had been unaffected and supplies had been rerouted via a bypass pipeline.

The incident raised concerns over the reliability of the Ukrainian gas transportation system. Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuriy Boiko met May 22 to discuss this issue.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала