Germany OKs NS2, Denmark May Be Trickier (Update fm Copenhagen)
updates with comment from the Danish foreign ministry in para 4....
Gazprom-owned pipeline project Nord Stream 2 (NS2) said January 31 it has received a permit to lay its pipe in German territorial waters. Whether it gets one offshore Denmark though remains in doubt.
NS2 said the Stralsund Mining Authority issued the German approval for the roughly 55km section of the route, plus landfall in Lubmin, in accordance with Germany’s Energy Industry Act (EnWG), which covers planning approval for NS2 construction and operation. But one further permit is required from Germany’s maritime and hydrographic agency (BSH), which NS2 expects in 1Q2018.
Denmark however has not yet given its consent for NS2 to pass through its 12-mile-zone territorial waters and, moreover, a new law came into force January 1 2018 requiring its foreign ministry to decide whether or not any new pipe or power cable should be prohibited from crossing its 12-mile territorial waters for foreign, security or defence considerations. Sources in Copenhagen told NGW earlier this month that NS2 would be the first project required to be examined under the new law but could not say when such a decision would be taken.
NGW had not received an update from the foreign ministry, at going to press. (The foreign ministry told NGW in the evening on January 31 that it had "received the request from the Ministry of Energy, Utilities and Climate regarding the evaluation of the [NS2] project's compatibility with Denmark's foreign, security and defence policy interests on January 9; the work is now being initiated.")
A NS2 spokesperson told NGW it has not received any information about the usage of the veto right by the Danish foreign minister.
NS2 said national permitting procedures in the other four countries along the route - Russia, Finland, Sweden and Denmark - were also “proceeding as planned” and that it expected to receive all permits in time for NS2’s scheduled start of construction in 2018. But NS2 would pass through Sweden and Finland’s international waters, whereas in Denmark’s case it would cross both international, EEZ and 12-mile waters.
Finance chief at NS2, Paul Corcoran, said in Vienna January 30 that $3bn was invested in the project in 2017, split equally between Gazprom on one hand, and five foreign financiers (Engie, OMV, Shell, Uniper, Wintershall) on the other. The venture also insisted January 31 that it is necessary as “experts [predict] that Europe will face an import gap of 120bn m3 over the next 20 years; this will need to be filled by pipeline gas supplied via Nord Stream 2 as well as by LNG”; it said the existing NS1 pipeline is already operating at 93% of its 55bn m3/yr capacity.
NS2 would add a further 55bn m3/yr if completed as scheduled by late 2019, taking Gazprom-controlled export capacity under the Baltic Sea to some 110bn m3/yr.
The venture last year also expressed unease at a European Commission proposal to extend EU common gas rules to all import pipelines from third countries, whether existing, under development or planned. (The banner photo is courtesy of NS2)