COPENHAGEN, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - The Danish Energy Authority on Tuesday issued permission for the construction of the Russian-German Nord Stream gas pipeline on its seabed.
The Danish Energy Agency concluded after analyzing environmental assessment reports on the project that it does not pose a threat. Some countries, including Sweden, Estonia and Finland, earlier questioned the environmental safety of the pipeline.
The Nord Stream pipeline, which will pump gas from Siberia to Europe under the Baltic Sea, bypassing East European transit countries, is being built jointly by Gazprom, Germany's E.ON Ruhrgas and BASF-Wintershall, and Dutch gas transportation firm Gasunie at an estimated cost of $12 billion.
The Danish Energy Agency said that the pipeline will run through 88 km (55 miles) of Denmark's territorial waters and 50 km (31 miles) of its exclusive economic zone.
The ambitious project is scheduled to be completed in 2012. The first of two parallel pipelines, approximately 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) long, each with a transport capacity of some 27.5 billion cu m per annum, is to become operational in 2010.
The Danish agency said the decision was administrative rather than political.
In early October, Russian energy giant Gazprom agreed on doubling gas supplies to Denmark via Nord Stream to 2 billion cubic meters annually.
