Germany Defends Pipeline Project After Putin Warning
GERMANY: November 14, 2008
BERLIN - Germany defended plans for a Baltic Sea gas pipeline on Thursday
after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned European partners that
Moscow may scrap the project.
Putin said on Wednesday that if Europe kept delaying the pipeline, Russia
might build gas liquefaction plants instead.
"The German government sees the Nord Stream pipeline as a central project to
the future assurance of European and German gas provision," Germany Economy
Ministry said.
"Existing concerns about the pipeline must be solved through constructive
talks between those involved," it said.
The European Union says the plan to pump Russian gas under the Baltic Sea to
Germany -- involving Russia's Gazprom, Germany's E.ON and BASF and Dutch
company Gasunie -- is a key project to ensure gas supplies.
But EU lawmakers have called for a new investigation into the pipeline's
environmental impact and it has been criticised by Poland, Lithuania and
Estonia, angered at being shut out of a leading gas supply route.
Putin said on Wednesday Europe had to decide "whether it needs this
pipeline" or not. He said that if Europe were to import the fuel from Russia
in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG) rather than by the pipeline, it
would be more expensive.
(Reporting by Kerstin Gehmlich, editing by Anthony Barker)
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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