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Nord Stream 2 may be a threat to environment: report

24.07.2019 15:49
Russia’s controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project may pose a threat to the environment, Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza daily reported on Wednesday.
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Photo: pexels.com / CC0

In an article headlined “What Russia is hiding in our sea,” the daily said that the pipeline’s construction may be causing oil and grease to leak into the Baltic Sea, thus affecting the marine environment.

In June, an oil spill that was 15 kilometres long and half a kilometre wide was spotted near the Finnish island of Utö, Gazeta Wyborcza reported.

The daily quoted energy security expert Mariusz Marszałkowski as saying that a ship hired by Russian state gas giant Gazprom was at that time working on the pipeline some 40 kilometres from the spill.

Marszałkowski claimed that the ship most likely caused the leak and failed to report any kind of emergency, which could delay the construction project.

Nord Stream 2 is due to be finished by the end of this year, according to Gazeta Wyborcza.

The controversial 1,200-kilometre pipeline is expected to have the capacity to send around 55 billion cubic metres of Russian natural gas a year directly to Germany under the Baltic Sea, while bypassing the Baltic states, Poland and Ukraine.

In June, US President Donald Trump warned Germany against Nord Stream 2 at an appearance with Poland’s President Andrzej Duda at the White House.

(jh/gs)

Source: Gazeta Wyborcza

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