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Austria, to start ordering their pipe, probably by autumn, if they are to
come in for any of the EC money.
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In other news of the Caspian Sea, Iran state TV reported on 14
February that the Iranian company North Drilling Co had begun
drilling its first exploratory oil well there in the previous week. The well,
one of three planned to gauge the amount of recoverable oil in Iran’s
territorial waters, was reported as taking place 5,085 feet under the
seabed. The move is the latest in an Iranian initiative to exploit more of
the resources of the Caspian, which Iran shares with Russia, Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Iran’s first offshore oil platform in the sea
was inaugurated last year.
Europe’s energy aims get a boost from
Finland’s go-ahead for the Nord Stream
pipeline under the Baltic Sea
The European Commission is not basing its hopes of broadening the
sources of its natural gas supply solely on the Nabucco pipeline projected
for the Caspian Sea. [“Pipeline from Turkey to Austria,”
above
.]
The EC’s commissioner for energy, Günther Oettinger, has noted the
bloc’s interest as well in South Stream, also set for commissioning in
2015, which would take Russian natural gas under the Black Sea to
Bulgaria. From there it will branch off northwest to Austria and south to
Greece and Italy. South Stream is a joint project of Russia’s Gazprom
and the Italian oil and gas corporation Eni, with Électricité de France a
possible additional participant.
A third pipeline project of keen interest to Europe – involving a third sea,
the Baltic – cleared a last major hurdle on 12 February with the approval
by the Finnish regulator of a permit needed for beginning construction
work off the coast of Finland. The pipeline company, Nord Stream,
under mainly German and Russian auspices, now may go ahead on
offshore work in all five countries under whose waters
the pipeline will
pass – Germany, Russia, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.
If the Nord Stream pipeline proceeds on schedule, it will begin advancing
the EC’s energy-sufficiency aims rather quickly. From its headquarters
in Zug, Switzerland, the consortium on 12 February reported an April
start date for constructing the first of the two parallel legs comprising
the pipeline, which would begin transporting gas late next year. When
completed in 2012, the project will be able to transport 1.9 trillion cubic
feet (tcf) of gas a year from Russia to Germany, where Nord Stream will
join the European energy grid.
Gazprom owns 51% of Nord Stream; Wintershall and the chemical
company BASF, of Germany, a 20% stake each; Nederlandse Gasunie,
9%. Gaz de France has negotiated to join the consortium.
Gazprom signed long-term contracts to supply over 700 billion cubic
feet (bcf) of gas a year through Nord Stream to customers in European
Union countries including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands,
Germany, France, Belgium and Denmark.
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At 759 miles, the projected Nord Stream pipeline is longer than
South Stream (300 miles), shorter than Nabucco (2,050 miles). But
as the likely first to the finish line, and the one which circumvents the
countries of central Europe, it holds potential for changing European
energy politics, at least in perception and possibly also in fact.