Finland may consider buying natural gas from a planned Baltic gas pipeline if it was stored in neighboring Estonia, a Finnish cabinet member was quoted as saying Tuesday.

In an interview with financial daily Taloussanomat, Trade and Industry Minister Mauri Pekkarinen said the gas could replace energy from coal-fired plants in the Helsinki area.

A possibility Pekkarinen mentioned was importing the gas from a storage site in Estonia, Finland's southern neighbour.

The 1,200-kilometer pipeline was envisaged to go online in 2010 and would run from Viborg in Russia to Greifswald, Germany.

Nord Stream, a Russian-German joint-venture company planning the pipeline, said early April it would conduct additional studies for the route of the pipeline after compiling responses from government agencies and others consulted.

Authorities in Finland and Sweden have suggested that Nord Stream investigates alternative routes for some stretches of the pipeline, citing environmental concerns including the need to avoid areas used by bird colonies during the winter.

Nordic nations have said they were worried that construction work would stir up toxic substances in the mud or disturb dumps containing World War II chemical weapons.

Pekkarinen said the environmental impact reviews would proceed as planned.

Copyright 2007 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH

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