Nord Stream 2 AG has handed in an application and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report to the Danish Energy Agency for a route passing through the Danish exclusive economic zone (EEZ) to the north-west of Bornholm.
This is an alternative route that does not pass through Danish territorial waters.
Nord Stream 2 AG said it is not withdrawing from the ongoing procedure for the preferred route as applied for in April 2017 which is based on the guidance received from Danish authorities during the successful planning and construction of the existing Nord Stream Pipeline.
The amendment of the Continental Shelf Act (1 January 2018) provides the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs the right to recommend, based on wide-ranging considerations, whether an application for infrastructure projects, such as gas transmission pipelines traversing territorial waters shall or shall not be further handled by the Danish Energy Agency. The recommendation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been pending since January 2018. Therefore, Nord Stream 2 AG decided to explore alternative routes outside of Danish territorial waters.
Based on the survey works, engineering and environmental assessments carried out in the last months, a viable route has been identified. This 175 kilometre-long alternative, passing north-west of Bornholm, crosses the Danish EEZ only.
This application will not substitute the current application which was filed in April 2017. Nord Stream 2 maintains that the first application provides the optimal route for the pipelines in Danish waters and will remain the preferred route.
To date, Nord Stream 2 has received the national permits for all the other national jurisdictions through which the pipelines pass between Russia and Germany.