Denmark Prepares Bill That May Reject Nord Stream 2 Project - Reports

STOCKHOLM (Sputnik) —The Danish government has prepared a draft bill that requires the country's Foreign Ministry to be the first to assess requests for permission to build pipelines, which might lead to the rejection of the demand of Nord Stream 2 AG, local media reported on Saturday.

According to the Politiken newspaper, the Danish parliament will discuss the bill in October.

Denmark received the request for the expansion of the existing Nord Stream pipeline in April. At the moment, such demands are studied by the Danish Energy Agency at an administrative level, but a new law would allow the Foreign Ministry to reject or accept a project based on whether it is a threat to the country's interests and security.

Nord Stream 2, a joint venture of Russia’s Gazprom with France's Engie, Austria’s OMV AG, Royal Dutch Shell and Germany's Uniper, envisages the construction of a pipeline with an annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters (1.9 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas. The pipeline is planned to be laid along the existing Nord Stream pipeline route from the Russian coast through the Baltic Sea and on to a hub in Germany.

The pipeline will go through territorial or special economic zones of several countries, including Denmark, Finland, Germany, Russia and Sweden.