Turning the Baltic Sea into a second Bosporus?

The Russian government recently declared its intention to turn the Baltic Sea into an oil-shipping corridor to Western Europe, carrying up to 150 million tons of Russian oil annually aboard tankers. This intention constitutes only the most recent threat to maritime safety and ecology in the crowded Baltic Sea and the straits leading to the North Sea. Parallel plans for a Russian gas pipeline along the Baltic seabed and for a liquefied-natural-gas (LNG) plant near Leningrad, which would involve still more traffic by tankers, add up to a gathering danger for the entire Baltic basin, affecting the North Sea as well.
On March 4, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus criticized the proposed undersea gas pipeline as “irresponsibly posing the risk of an environmental catastrophe” (interview with Radio Ekho Moskvy cited by Interfax, March 4). On March 5, Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Ministry State Secretary Zygmantas Pavilionis, speaking in Brussels to an inter-ministerial meeting of the three Baltic and five Nordic countries, raised the twin concerns about the planned gas pipeline and increase in oil-tanker traffic (BNS, March 5).

Meanwhile, government authorities and public organizations in Sweden and, most recently, Finland have expressed serious concerns as well, calling for international evaluations of the project and criticizing the information presented by the Russian-German consortium as (according to Finnish authorities) “very scant, reflecting a very cavalier attitude” (Helsingin Sanomat, March 1).

Tanker traffic is already on the increase since Russia stopped crude oil deliveries to Lithuania by pipeline last July. The move, executed by Transneft, retaliated against Lithuania’s sale of the Mazeikiai oil refinery and related assets to Poland’s PKN Orlen company, instead of Russian companies. Russia’s pipeline closure has compelled the Polish-Lithuanian partners to import corresponding volumes of crude oil by tanker to the ports of Butinge and Gdansk.

Moscow cited a minor oil-spill from that pipeline on Russian territory as the excuse for closing it. In normal countries and circumstances, repairs may last some days or at most several weeks after a minor spill. But, ever since July, Russian authorities have ignored Lithuania’s repeated requests for basic information, such as the actual condition of the pipeline and a schedule for repairs. In mid-February, Moscow merely announced that it would prolong the period of “checks” on the pipeline (BNS, February 22; Interfax, March 5).

Meanwhile, Russia aims to build an LNG plant at the easternmost end of the Baltic Sea with a dedicated tanker port, probably by expanding the existing Ust-Luga maritime terminal.

Eurasia Daily Monitor