Britain will start piping in gas directly from Russia in late 2012, the chief executive of Nord Stream has said.

Matthias Warnig told The Times that Britain already reserved 4 billion cubic meters of gas a year, the equivalent of over 4% of the country's total gas requirements.

The UK is switching from a gas exporter to an importer," he was quoted as saying by the paper. "By 2025 there will be a substantial import need ... Several billion cubic meters per year are already contracted for the U.K. through Nord Stream."

The executive told the paper that the gas would be piped through the Netherlands and Belgium, across the North Sea through pipelines to Norfolk.

The $12 billion pipeline is designed to bypass Ukraine, Poland and Belarus, traditional transit countries fro Russian gas. Construction is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2010.

MOSCOW, November 28 (RIA Novosti)