Finland wants German-Russian gas company Nord Stream to come with alternative plans for laying its planned 1,200-kilometer undersea pipeline so it does not pass through Finnish waters, the Finnish environment ministry said.

The ministry said that the consortium should look into laying the pipeline through Russian waters to the south of Hogland Island in the Gulf of Finland.

Nord Stream said it would not study an alternative route to the south of Hogland, due to heavy shipping traffic and the multitudes of cables and shipwrecks that pepper the seabed there.

Finland fears that the pipeline could damage the ecologically sensitive Baltic Sea and insists that the seabed along the northern route is more uneven and more potentially hazardous construction work would be needed to level it.

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Related Project
Nord Stream Pipeline
Facility Type: Pipeline Owner: Nord Stream AG
Scope: New Construction Location: Vyborg, Russia to Greifswald, Germany Russian Federation