RIA Novosti reported that the Danish Energy Authority issued permission for the construction of the Russian-German Nord Stream gas pipeline on its seabed.

The Danish Energy Agency concluded after analyzing environmental assessment reports on the project that it does not pose a threat. Some countries including Sweden, Estonia and Finland, earlier questioned the environmental safety of the pipeline.

The Nord Stream pipeline which will pump gas from Siberia to Europe under the Baltic Sea bypassing East European transit countries is being built jointly by Gazprom, Germany's E.ON Ruhrgas and BASF-Wintershall and Dutch gas transportation firm Gasunie at an estimated cost of USD 12 billion.

The Danish Energy Agency said that the pipeline will run through 88 kilometers of Denmark's territorial waters and 50 kilometers of its exclusive economic zone. The ambitious project is scheduled to be completed in 2012. The first of two parallel pipelines, approximately 1,200 kilometers long each with a transport capacity of some 27.5 billion cubic meters per annum is to become operational in 2010.

The Danish agency said the decision was administrative rather than political.

(Sourced from RIA Novosti)