Baltic countries unhappy with proposed undersea pipeline.

The consortium of companies, known as Nord stream has, at this time, been refused permission to build a new gas pipeline running under the Baltic Sea, the Swedish government claims that the application is too incomplete to go forward.

The environment ministry of Sweden states that it has asked Nord Stream to develop its application, particularly in the field of the environmental impact of the project and to consider possibility of taking the line along a different route.

The 1200 km undersea pipeline is intended to link Russia with Germany but several countries from within the EC, have raised concerns about potential ecological problems, these include Latvia and Lithuania call and Sweden and Estonia.

The Swedish environment ministry claims that “Decisive accounts are lacking in Nord Stream’s applications for permission for a gas pipe in the Baltic Sea. It takes substantial complements for the government to be able to try the applications,”

Meanwhile Finland’s environment ministry has made it clear that Estonia, Lithuania and Poland are considering if an overland pipeline is viable commercially, and environmentally.

Nord Stream is made of a consortium of BASF and E.ON from Germany, Dutch company Gasunie, and the major shareholder is Russia’s giant Gazprom. Initial plans call for the pumping of over 27 billion cubic metres per year, then by 2012, adding a second pipeline to double the potential capacity.