AlHijjah 13, 1432, Nov 9, 2011, SPA - European leaders and Russia's president opened a 7.4 billion euros ($10.2 billion) natural gas pipeline that links western Europe directly with Siberia's vast gas reserves in a bid to make the region's energy supply more secure. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon and Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte joined Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in symbolically turning a wheel to open the pipeline in Lubmin, on the Baltic Sea coast in Germany's northeastern corner. “We are going to put into operation the first stage of a new partnership between Russia and the European Union,” Medvedev said. The 1,200-km Nord Stream underwater pipeline ferries the gas from Vyborg, near St. Petersburg in northern Russia, under the Baltic to Lubmin. Merkel called the pipeline a “strategic project that is exemplary for the cooperation between the European Union and Russia.” Once the project is complete, gas will flow to Europe through two pipelines. The first line, inaugurated Tuesday, has an annual capacity of 27.5 billion cubic meters. That volume will double once the second line is completed - expected next year. Nord Stream officials say it's the world's longest underwater pipeline, according to a report of the Associated Press. The total annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters is equivalent to more than 10 percent of the EU's current gas needs, EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said.
