Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday Moscow was on track to build a controversial $12 billion natural gas pipeline to Germany from Russia.

Russia intends to complete the trans-Baltic Nord Stream pipeline, controversial for both environmental concerns and national security risks, by 2012 "according to plan," Putin told a news conference following the meeting.

"Its implementation is in the interests of Russia and its European partners," he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, meeting with Putin, said the project enjoyed German "political support" and that Germany looks forward to the project's economic benefits.

She denied Germany intended to pull out of the project.

The first of two parallel pipelines, about 750 miles long, each with a transport capacity of about 27.5 billion cubic meters a year, is to begin operations in 2010. In the second phase, capacity should double to about 55 billion cubic meters a year, the Russian Information Agency Novosti reported.

Russian energy giant JSC Gazprom owns a 51 percent stake in the project and Germany's BASF AG and E.ON AG hold 24.5 percent each. // Copyright 2007 by United Press International


Publication date: 16 October 2007   

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