On Tuesday Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel officially launched the Nord Stream pipeline in in the town of Lubmin, Germany.

      The other ceremony's participants were the prime-minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte, French prime-minister Francois Fillon and the EU energy commissioner Gunter Ettinger.

      Nord Stream is a new route for exporting Russian gas via the Baltic sea to Europe, avoiding transit countries such as Ukraine and Belarus. The subsea pipeline is 1,222 kilometres (759 mi) long.

      Now the pipeline can deliver up to 27.5 bln cubic meters of gas annually and soon it is planned to reach 55 bln. cubic meters, when the pipeline's construction will be finished conclusively.

        It is taken to be that Nord Stream will cheapen the gas supplies to Europe, as the pipeline doesn't pass the territory of transit countries. The project is also meant to decrease Russia's dependence on such countries, especially Ukraine with which there were several "gas conflicts" throughout the last couple of years because of Kiev demanding lower prices for Russian gas.

Sources: Lenta.ru Gazeta.ru Image: Rambler News

      Related News: Nord Stream to go operational on November 8 (3.10.2011)

      Russia Launches Major Gas Pipeline to Europe (13.09.2011)