The pipeline generally is not expected to have any major impacts on the environment. This is also evidenced by the large number of offshore pipelines in the North Sea and elsewhere. Main interferences will be associated with the pipe laying during the construction phase – but they will be temporary and local. There is practically no impact during the operational phase.

Nord Stream takes into account all ecological, maritime and legal considerations, as well as concerns raised by the countries across the Baltic Sea. Nord Stream also respects all local and international legal requirements regarding environmental protection and safety, as well as the company’s own high standards and internationally recognised working practices. The company carried out a comprehensive seabed survey in the Baltic Sea, which provided new data and expertise on its conditions, flora and fauna.

Nord Stream has finished all survey operations. At last, the anchor corridor survey, which started on 15 November 2008, was finished in September 2009, after 54 weeks of continuous operations involving 11 vessels. All the data necessary to establish a safe pipeline route has been gathered. The installation permit application accounted for the possibility that the pipeline route may need to be adjusted slightly in order to ensure a safe distance from sites with objects such as sensitive wrecks. Such cases are to be discussed individually with the responsible national authorities.

The survey campaigns were conducted using state-of-the-art high resolution equipment, ensuring that potentially dangerous objects, even those as small as a can of coke, were identified. Nord Stream employed, for example, a gradiometer array that is the most advanced available on the commercial market. It has a tracking swathe of seven metres. The gradiometer array was specifically developed for the Nord Stream project to meet the particular challenges of one of the most extensive seabed surveys.