Nord Stream passes Finnish Environmental Challenge

Appeals to a Finnish court challenging a permit to build the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline in Finland’s waters have been rejected.

Nord Stream has said that Finland’s Vaasa Administrative Court has rejected appeals made against the against the decision of the Finnish permit authority to grant the Water Permit. The Finnish government issued its final permit for the gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea in February 2010.

Estonian non-governmental organizations, together with the Finnish Association of Nature Conservation and two individuals challenged the Water Permit decision in March 2010 citing the potential environmental impact of the pipeline construction in congested part of the Baltic Sea, which has World War II mines and munitions strewn along the sea floor.

Construction for Nord Stream started April 9 in the Swedish waters of the Baltic Sea when operators placed the first 2 miles of the pipeline on the sea floor. Engineers pulled the first section of the Nord Stream gas pipeline onto the German shore in July.  The first section between Russian landfall and KP 7.5 has already been laid by Saipem’s Castoro Sei, which is currently laying the pipeline in Finnish waters in an easterly direction between KP 451 and KP 350.

Allseas’ Solitaire, the world’s largest pipelay vessel, has started to lay the Gulf of Finland section of the pipeline 7.5 kilometres from the Russian landfall and will continue in a westerly direction through the Gulf of Finland to kilometre point (KP) 300.

Source: Nord Stream