CORRECTED: Nord Stream to initially supply EU with 1 mln cu m of gas an hour - exec
(headline adjusted)
BERLIN. Nov 8 (Interfax) - Russia's Gazprom will start supplying Europe with natural gas through the Nord Stream offshore pipeline at 1200 GMT on Tuesday by delivering 1 million cubic meters per hour, said a director at the Swiss-domiciled Nord Stream AG company.
This will amount to 8.5 billion cubic meters per year, Dirk von Ameln told reporters.
Nord Stream has an ultimate annual shipping target of 27.5 billion cubic meters, which is enough to supply 23 million households. Von Ameln said, however, that it was beyond Nord Stream AG's control when this target would be achieved. All the company does is to provide the transport infrastructure while it is Gazprom's prerogative how to use it, he said.
Von Ameln claimed that his company sees Nord Stream as a pipeline that will supplement the planned South Stream and Nabucco pipelines rather than rival them. He added that growing demand for gas in Europe meant that all current pipeline projects would find markets.
He also said gas to be transported through Nord Stream would make a serious contribution to fighting climate change.
Company papers say most of the NEL pipeline, a planned western offshoot from Nord Stream, was ready, and that an 830-kilometer section of the planned 1,224-kilometer second strand of Nord Stream had been welded together.
Von Ameln said Gazprom had rejected an initial proposal to register the Nord Stream company in Germany. The Netherlands and Ireland were other options under consideration, but eventually Switzerland was chosen for logistical and financial reasons. The company is registered in the town of Zug.