Estonia could join NEGP - minister (reality over rides rhetoric)

RIA Novosti, ^ | 22/ 12/ 2005 | Nikolai Adashkevich

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TALLINN, December 22 (RIA Novosti, Nikolai Adashkevich) - Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said in Moscow Thursday that Estonia could eventually join the North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP) project through a pipeline between Estonia and Finland, which were debating the wisdom of its construction.

"The idea of building a natural gas pipeline is being discussed at the moment in terms of its economic viability. So far, it is difficult to speak about the cost of such a project," the minister said. "Although we have been receiving natural gas from Russia, any new sources would enhance the country's energy security."

Paet said Estonia and Finland would start laying an electric cable along the sea floor soon.

The minister said options had to be studied to ensure national energy security.

"In theory, everything is possible, if countries display willingness. However, an environmental analysis has to be done and risks minimized before we can move further," the minister said.

Some Estonian parliament members have proposed expanding Estonian and Finnish economic zones in the Gulf of Finland to obstruct the ambitious project, but Paet said the gulf had been divided by the littoral states already. He noted that international law allowed countries to build underwater cables and pipelines, and use other countries' waters and airspace for economic purposes.

The agreement to build the 4.7-billion euro, 1200-km NEGP was signed September 8 by Russian energy giant Gazprom and Germany's BASF AG and E.ON AG. The project will ensure the direct supplies of Russian natural gas to Germany and other West European countries and make Russia less dependent on the transit countries, which include Lithuania, Moldova, Poland and Ukraine.