The 1,220 km long Nord Stream pipeline will be 1.4 billion EUR more expensive than estimated in 2008, Barents Observer reports. The pipeline will have a price tag of 8.8 billion EUR, Nord Stream representative Irina Vasilieva told newspaper Vedomosti. That is almost four billion EUR more than the estimates from 2005 and 1.4 billion EUR more than estimates from 2008.
However, Vasilieva argues that the project operations have not grown more expensive. It is the additional administrative expenditures, as well as credit interests and fees, which has resulted in the higher costs, she says. The budget of today will be kept and all major project orders have already been made, the Nord Stream representative stresses. The first part pipeline, which is will run on the sea bed of the Baltic Sea, will be ready for operations in 2011. The second part will be completed in 2012.
