Survey activities in accordance with international and national legal requirements
Aug. 30, 2007 | Zug | To clear up speculations surrounding the survey and salvage activities in the Baltic Sea, Nord Stream AG presented the following information to the Swedish Minister of Defence.
There have been demands that Nord Stream should make public the results of surveys that have and will be conducted in the Baltic Sea in connection with the planned Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Europe. Nord Stream AG regards the survey data as confidential but has made them available to the appropriate authorities under the permit conditions, e.g. to the Geological Survey of Sweden (SGU).
It is correct that the Russian company Peter Gaz, an affiliate of Gazprom, conducted the first surveys of the seabed along the planned Nord Stream route in 2005/2006. These surveys were made on the basis of permits granted by relevant national authorities. The Nord Stream surveys undertaken during 2007 complement the first-phase results.
In accordance with the permits granted, the results of the 2005/2006 surveys were reported to the appropriate authorities of the respective countries. In the case of Sweden, this was done in February and March 2007 to SGU. An outline of the results has been reported to other countries as part of the Espoo process. No detailed survey results have been released to other countries. The detailed results are utilised by Nord Stream consultants under strict confidentiality agreements.
Nord Stream has currently assigned a renowned Swedish marine survey company, Marin Mätteknik in Gothenburg, to conduct additional and more detailed surveys. Also Peter Gaz as a subcontractor to Nord Stream periodically checks the metocean survey stations (measurements of waves and currents) in the German, Danish, Swedish, Finnish and Russian Exclusive Economic Zones. No Russian Navy specialists were present on the vessels – “R/V Professor Shtokman” and “R/V Akademik Golitsyn” – during surveys conducted outside Russian waters. The results of these investigations will also be reported to the appropriate authorities of the concerned countries.
In addition to the above mentioned surveys, in 2006 and 2007 surveys have also been conducted as part of an EU financed research project MERCW – Modelling of Ecological Risks Related to Sea-Dumped Chemical Weapons. The surveys were performed in the Bornholm and the Finnish sector of the Baltic. The research surveys, involving the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Kaliningrad, and the Russian survey vessel R/V Professor Shtokman, were coordinated by Tapani Stipa of the Finnish Institute of Marine Research.
The appropriate authorities have the right to decide in their sovereignty on the handling of the information and what to do with the objects found on the seabed. The Russian authorities have now announced how they feel it is appropriate to proceed in Russian waters. This does not affect the decisions of authorities in other countries concerned. Nord Stream AG would like to emphasise that to its knowledge, the publicly announced salvage activities of the Russian Federation Navy are limited to Russia’s continental shelf and Exclusive Economic Zone.
As underlined before, Nord Stream AG abides by all legal requirements regarding the implementation of its pipeline project and cooperates closely with the concerned authorities.
