Nord Stream 2: green light for 55-kilometre section in German territorial waters

The contentious Nord Stream 2 Russian-German natural gas pipeline project has cleared an important hurdle, reports the news agency dpa. Mining authority Bergamt Stralsund has granted a permit for the construction and operation of a 55-kilometre section of the pipeline  in German territorial waters and the landfall area around eastern Germany’s Lubmin, writes the Ministry of Energy, Infrastructure and Digitalisation of the state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania in a press release. Construction is planned to start immediately, says the ministry. The authorities had paid special attention to make sure that the project’s negative environmental impact would be compensated, said the state’s Energy Minister, Christian Pegel. Nord Stream 2 welcomed the decision as “an important milestone in a multi-layered permit process,” according to dpa. The permit to build the 31-km pipeline section in Germany’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) has not yet been granted by the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH), and permits by Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Russia are also still outstanding.

Find the dpa article in German here, a Reuters article in English here, and the state’s press release in German here.

For background, read the news digest entry German authorities issue first partial permit for Nord Stream 2 pipeline and the CLEW factsheet Germany’s dependence on imported fossil fuels.