Paul Corcoran, the Nord Stream consortium's financial director, told EurActiv that he expected the necessary environmental permits to be delivered in December 2009.
The project finance will be put in place in the third quarter of this year, allowing construction to begin in the spring of 2010 as planned, he said.
The official insisted that there was a solid base for securing financing.
"The shareholders agreement for Nord Stream had a clear view on how the project should be financed. Thirty percent would be financed by shareholders' equity - that was received upfront - and the consortium holds 1.5 billion euros of shareholders' funds," he explained. "Seventy percent of the investment cost will be covered by external financing, and that would come through project financing."
Corcoran said he was confident that the shareholder equity and a 22-year ship-or-pay contract with Gazprom represented a "good financing proposition" for commercial banks interested in financing the projects. Completion risk will be taken by the shareholders, he added, which should also be attractive for banks.
He admitted, however, that lenders will want to see solid environmental credentials and final technical specifications before pouring money into the project. As soon as the transport route, technical design and environmental impact studies are finalised, the consortium will approach the lending market, he said.
The current economic downturn is not seen as a major problem by the consortium. "The economic crisis has indeed advantages for us. If we look at the fact that the second line has not been ordered, we see that steel price has reduced substantially from the estimate we made in our budget, and therefore we have now a significant contingency," Corcoran said.
