MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/. Gazprom sees no reason for growth of cost for the Nord Stream 2 project, Deputy Chairman of Gazprom Management Committee Andrey Kruglov said at a press conference.

"We do not expect that the cost of the Nord Stream 2 project will increase for no reason," he said, responding to a question about the possibility of the project’s cost growth due to the need to bypass the territorial waters of Denmark, which has not yet given permission to the pipeline.

CFO of Nord Stream 2 AG, the operator of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, Paul Corcoran said earlier he does not expect the construction bypassing Denmark to significantly affect the timing and cost of the project, if the country rejects permission for construction of the pipeline's initial route.

"Probably (there will be - TASS) no delay (in construction completion) at all. It (Denmark’s section) is 10% of the route. We can start building on time and we can finish this 10% after we get a permission," he told journalists on Thursday.

"We can still finish the project on time. Because of the five vessels that we have we have flexibility when and where we build. We can reorganize our construction schedule to allow for the Danish permit to come in a certain point in a future and finish that section. It will take only a short time to build the Danish section. The vessels lay 3-3.5 kilometers per day. So, it is not a major delay and not major costs for the project," CFO explained.

According to Corcoran, the construction of the pipeline may be started this summer prior to obtaining permission from Denmark. "We expect to start in summer. We have started preparation works - seabed preparation works, landfall construction is underway and vessels are mobilized, so they can start laying pipes in the next weeks," he said.

"We have to reroute the pipeline (if the Danish government rejects permission for gas pipeline construction in its territorial waters - TASS)," CFO said, adding that "the most likely reroute is in international waters to the north of Denmark."

"We have applied for the best route and we hope to get a permission hopefully in the next weeks or months," he said.

Contractors can start construction any time, regardless of weather conditions, Corcoran said.

"They can start any time. We have booked five vessels - three from Allseas, one from Saipem and one from Russian MRTS. We have this fleet, which gives us a lot of flexibility to lay different sections in the Baltic Sea depending on permissions," he explained.

Denmark is the last country that has not issued a permit for construction of the gas pipeline in its exclusive economic zone. Appropriate permits have already been given by Germany, Russia, Finland and Sweden.

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is expected to come into service at the end of 2019. The pipeline is set to run from the Russian coast along the Baltic Sea bed to the German shore. Each of the pipeline’s two stretches will have a capacity of 27.5 bln cubic meters. The new pipeline that is expected to connect the Russian resource base with European customers, will double the capacity of the first line and will basically follow its route.

The total cost of the project has been estimated at 9.5 bln euro. Gazprom is the only shareholder of Nord Stream 2 AG. Gazprom's European partners in the project are Germany’s Uniper and Wintershall, Austrian OMV, French Engie and Anglo-Dutch Shell.