Undersea Gas Pipeline in Gulf of Finland Controversial

BBC Photo

The pipeline scheduled to run from Vyborg, Russia, to Greifswald, Germany has not yet begun. The controversy surrounding this pipeline is in fact, nothing new. Almost since its conception there have been arguments about how it should be implemented and why. For one thing, Poland insists that the pipeline run overland through Poland; Russian interests declare that the undersea route makes the most sense logistically. There is concern among the Baltic states and Finland, that the 5 billion euro pipeline will be good for Russia and Germany, but bad for everyone else. Then there are the environmental issues. There are political issues, with the gas originating in Russia, to be used by EU countries encompassing almost the whole of Europe. This dependence on fuel from Russia is a cause for concern. For each one of these interests, the stakes seem fairly substantial; but still there is a ways to go before anything is going to be finalized. Read about the latest issues, in this article from BBC.co.uk...


A lot of surveying needs to be done, information collected, the sea floor examined. One small item of concern is the large number of mines that were released into the Sea of Finland during WWII. Many are of course concerned about the impact on the environment. Nord Stream, the international group in charge of the project (of which Gazprom owns a 51% interest and German companies own 40%), will issue its Environmental Impact Assessment Report, as required by the United Nations, in the Spring of 2008.