BABAYEVO, December 9 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's prime minister and other senior officials attended a ceremony Friday to mark the start of construction work on a major energy project that will revolutionize the delivery of the country's natural gas to Europe.
Mikhail Fradkov, Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko, head of energy giant Gazprom Alexei Miller, and Germany's new minister of economics and technology, Michael Glos, were all present to see work start on the North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP), which will eventually take Russian natural gas to Germany across the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
"We will create conditions for stable energy cooperation, ensuring European and global energy security," the Russian premier said.
Fradkov also called the 4.7 billion euro pipeline, which will have a throughput capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas, "the biggest cooperation project in the Russian and European gas industry."
The ceremony was held in the Vologda Region town of Babayevo, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of Moscow.
Russian energy giant Gazprom and Germany's BASF AG and E.ON AG, as minority shareholders in the project, signed an agreement to build the NEGP project on September 8.
The first leg of the pipeline, which will stretch for 1,200km (750 miles) and connect Russia via the Baltic to Germany's Greifswald region, is set to come on-stream in 2010. Offshoots may then be built to link it with the Kaliningrad Region, Russia's exclave within the European Union, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom.
