OREANDA-NEWS. Nord Stream took a further concrete step in line with its firm commitment to preserve the Baltic Sea with the launch of its Data and Information Fund (DIF) online portal. This portal enables Nord Stream to share its extensive knowledge and survey data with the scientific community for the further research and preservation of the Baltic Sea.

The DIF covers environmental and seabed survey data (e.g. bathymetry and sediment-type data) along the route of the Nord Stream pipelines within a defined corridor of around 2 kilometres. Nord Stream AG, as the operator of one of the major infrastructure projects in the Baltic Sea (two 1,224 km-long natural gas pipelines through the Baltic Sea) was actively involved in conducting numerous surveys in the Baltic from 2005 to 2012. During this period, the company gathered a wealth of unique data about the Baltic Sea for the purposes of the pipeline design and routing, the project's permit applications and environmental impact assessments as well as the environmental and social monitoring during the construction.

Nord Stream invested over 100 million euros in conducting the most extensive environmental studies of the Baltic Sea. This valuable information gathered over several years can now be utilized to address some of the many challenges of the Baltic Sea environment. In particular, the data can be helpful for environmental projects within HELCOM's Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP). The unique data gathered by Nord Stream covers the entire range of HELCOM's Baltic Sea Action Plan priorities, including eutrophication, hazardous substances, environmentally-friendly maritime activities and biodiversity.

"The Baltic Sea is the home of our project. With the launch of the Data and Information Fund, we want to make our contribution to the wealth of knowledge about the Baltic. We invite relevant universities, scientists and experts to visit the DIF to gain valuable data for the sake of further research and preservation of the Baltic. We hope that Nord Stream's data heritage will help to form a better picture of the challenges which the Baltic Sea is facing. We also want to encourage universities and researchers around the Baltic Sea to create new solutions to improve the state of our sea." said Dirk von Ameln, Permitting Director Nord Stream AG.

The use of the DIF data is restricted to academic, research, educational, and governmental purposes. Data which is subject to legal restrictions by laws of the Baltic Sea countries is excluded from the Fund's database. Nord Stream will maintain the database until 2021, in line with many of the HELCOM projects.