Gazprom starts filling Nord Stream pipeline with gas
PORTOVAYA, LENINGRAD REGION. Sept 6 (Interfax) - Gazprom Tuesday started to pump gas into the first phase of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which links the Russia and German coasts via the Baltic Sea bed.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin clicked the mouse that opened the valve to let the gas in at the Portovaya compressor station's dispatch center, an Interfax correspondent reports from the scene.
The so-called "Golden Weld" - the final weld connecting its offshore and onshore parts of the pipeline - was completed on the first of Nord Stream's twin pipelines on August 19. The pipe was then filled with nitrogen from the German direction to act as a cushion between the air and natural gas.
The natural gas will displace the nitrogen and fill the pipe to a certain pressure. This is the so-called "technological gas" that is needed in order to start piping gas to European consumers in October.
The second of the twin pipelines is currently being laid over a distance of 650 kilometers and will enter service in 2012.
