The Wall Street Journal: “Putin Confident in Nord Stream Despite Polish Concerns”
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin expressed confidence that his favorite brainchild, a gas pipeline linking Russia directly with Germany, will go ahead despite latest objections from Poland.
The Nord Stream pipeline is already under construction in the Baltic Sea, and will carry gas from Russia directly to Germany along a route almost entirely offshore, making redundant a large transit pipeline running through Poland. Russia's OAO Gazprom holds 51% in Nord Stream AG, which is building the pipeline. Germany's E.ON Ruhrgas AG and a gas exploration unit of Wintershall AG, French energy company GDF Suez SA and Dutch gas infrastructure company Nederlandse Gasunie are the other shareholders.
In an interview with Russian daily Kommersant published Tuesday, Mr. Putin said Poland asked Germany to force the shareholders of the Nord Stream gas pipeline project to bury the pipeline deeper in the Baltic Sea bed so that the pipeline doesn't reduce the depth of the waterway leading to a planned Polish liquefied natural gas port. The Russian prime minister calls the move "unexpected" and "the latest piece of news" despite Poland's long-standing concerns over the depth of the waterway. The country plans to build a liquefied natural gas terminal near Germany, and last year said Nord Stream would be laid too shallow and could in the future block the port for larger vessels.
The Russian daily also incorrectly stated that Poland lodged a complaint with the European Commission, leading to a commission denial Tuesday. Mr. Putin isn't directly quoted as referring to the European Commission, but to Germany as the recipient of Poland's complaint.
"Unexpectedly, Poles have said now the pipeline should be going through the waterway at a much bigger depth than expected because in the future they plan to deepen their port and have larger ships use the waterway. Until now, they haven't said anything of such intentions," Mr. Putin reportedly said.
Mr. Putin added that building Nord Stream had been his dream for a long time and that he thought nothing would stop the project. During a Valdai Club meeting several years ago, Mr. Putin, still in his capacity as president of Russia, rhetorically asked: "Why does everything have to go through Poland?" A pipeline through the Baltic Sea provides the only option for Russia to link its gas system directly with that of Germany, circumventing transit countries in continental Europe.
Poland has for several years planned a liquefied natural gas terminal in Swinoujscie, near the border with Germany in northwestern Poland, scheduled for completion in mid-2014. With an initial capacity to deliver 5 billion cubic meters of gas a year, it will be able to meet about one third of Poland's current annual gas consumption, and will be an alternative to Russian gas supplies through existing pipelines on the ground.
The Polish press has since last year widely discussed the impact of the Nord Stream construction on the depth of the waterway leading to Swinoujscie. In December 2009, Guido Westerwelle, German foreign minister, was quoted as saying that the pipeline should be buried under the bed of the Baltic Sea and that Germany will agree to Nord Stream AG's pipeline if it doesn't block access for larger ships to ports in northwestern Poland.
The Russian daily quotes Nord Stream AG's managing director Matthias Warnig, a former member of East Germany's Stasi security service, who said Poland stands no chance at forcing Germany to change the pipeline's route, and that the country currently has no plan of building a deeper waterway, while his company would be able to change the placement of the Nord Stream pipeline in the future, if it proves necessary.
Marcin Sobczyk
