Nord Stream 2 gets Russian construction permit

The Russian Ministry of Construction,  Housing and Utilities issued a construction permit for the Russian section of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Practical implementation of the project under the terms of the newly-issued permit will begin in the near future, with due consideration of the environmental aspects and the opinion of the State Environmental Expert review, Gazprom said in a statement.

“The issuing of the construction permit for the Russian section marks an important milestone for the Nord Stream 2 project as a whole,” Sergey Serdyukov, chief technical officer at Nord Stream 2 AG.

In Russia, Nord Stream 2 needs to obtain two main permits. In addition to the latest permit, a permit for the construction of underwater pipelines in the territorial sea of Russia is to be granted by the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources (Rosprirodnadzor).

The permit is expected to be issued in the near future, Gazprom said.

To date, all the necessary permits for the construction and operation of the planned pipeline were issued by Germany, Finland, and Sweden. The national permitting procedure is underway in Denmark.

Nord Stream 2 project includes the construction of a gas pipeline across the Baltic Sea that will provide reliable supplies of Russian natural gas to European consumers. The project will largely follow the route and technical concept of the Nord Stream pipeline and will have the capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year