Valery Salygin, Director of the International Institute for Energy Policy and Diplomacy, said the project, to be built by an international consortium involving the Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom and German energy majors BASF and E.ON, would not take long to recoup its production costs, estimated at $5 billion. The pipeline's initial capacity after its launch in 2010 is projected at 27.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year, and the current gas prices in Western Europe are as high as $160 or $170 per thousand cubic meters.
Salygin said the pipeline would enable Gazprom to create an additional route for the supply of natural gas to the steadily growing European market. "The North European Pipeline is special in that it doesn't cross any transit countries," he said. (more)
