The ambitious pipeline project, being developed by Russia's state-controlled gas giant Gazprom and Germany's E.ON and BASF at an estimated cost of $12 billion, is scheduled to be completed in 2012.
"We are not against the gas pipeline's construction but will carefully examine the results of an environmental study," Harri Helenius told a RIA Novosti press conference on Monday.
According to the Finnish diplomat, the Nord Stream project will increase gas exports from Russia to Europe by 30%.
"Europe needs gas, but environmental issues are important for us because the Gulf of Finland is polluted, and toxic substances could surface from the seabed during the gas pipeline's construction," Helenius said.
The first of Nord Stream's two parallel pipelines, approximately 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) long, each with a transport capacity of some 27.5 billion cubic meters per year, is to become operational in 2010. In the second phase, capacity should double to about 55 billion cubic meters per year.
