RIGA - EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has expressed support for the construction of a Russian-German gas pipeline beneath the Baltic Sea, while adding that laying down an offshoot to Latvia would not make economic sense.
Piebalgs said that Nord Stream, which continues to stoke controversy among environmentalists and Russia-skeptics, should be analyzed "in a realistic perspective."
"What do we see? Some 23 percent of the natural gas consumed by the EU comes from Russia. We consume 500 billion cubic meters of gas a year. Nord Stream would increase gas supplies by 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year. Does such a gas consumption change Europe's dependence on Russia strategically? No," he told Latvijas Avize in an interview.
Europe's own gas production is declining, he said, and the EU needs additional gas resources both from Norway and Russia as overall natural gas consumption increases.
"Nord Stream is a commercial project, and I do not see why it could not be implemented," he stressed.
He admitted that alternative gas suppliers and routes were important, but for the time being none was better than Nord Stream. Specifically, the Yamal-Europe 2 pipeline that would cross Belarus and Poland did not look promising.
"How much do we trust Belarus as a transit country? How much do we trust in the [Belarus President Alexander] Lukashenko government? he said.
