Nord Stream: Pipeline Has Had "No Significant Environmental Impact" in Russia

The Nord Stream consortium has announced the results of its environmental impact in Russia in the first three quarters of 2011. The consortium says that there has been "no significant environmental impact" from the pipeline, with results of the monitoring even better than expected.

The consortium has been monitoring both Russian waters and the onshore area of the Nord Stream Pipeline in Portovaya Bay, Russia for the first three quarters of 2011.

Testing shows that the initial construction of the pipeline has minor or no impact on the environment. Any minor impact, the consortium said, was endured for only a short time and in a very local area. The survey shows a better than expected environmental result than that originally forecast. Conservative figures given for the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) given before construction were higher than the actual results found in the survey, Nord Stream AG says.

The consortium also monitored water quality through water sampling in the second and third quarters of 2011 in 21 locations in the Gulf of Finland. Testing there also showed optimal results, with the maximum content of suspended sediments lower than that permissible by law.

Nord Stream AG will continue to monitor the environmental impact of the pipeline, it says, with a total of €40 million invested between 2010 and 2016  with a further 1,000 locations to be studied and analysed by the consortium in the future.