Planned route

Planned route

NEL will begin where the Nord Stream offshore pipeline comes on land in Lubmin near Greifswald and run in a westerly direction through Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to Lower Saxony. From Lubmin the 440-kilometer-long pipeline will first head for the Meck-lenburg Lake District. Between Güstrow and Teterow it will then continue in the direction of Schwerin before crossing the Elbe at Hittbergen near Lauenburg. South of Hamburg NEL passes near the town of Winsen on the river Luhe. From Seevetal the pipeline then runs through the Nordheide parallel to the A1 as far as Achim near Bremen. Finally, after passing through the moor landscape near Syke and Bassum, it then reaches Rehden (near Vechta) where the natural gas is either stored or fed into the existing gas pipeline network.

It is not always the shortest route – and therefore the lowest cost route – that is selected for a pipeline. Likewise, NEL will take the route that is best for the people and the environment. The following requirements have to be considered in the detailed planning:

•    The conservation of ecologically significant areas
•    The protection of infrastructure elements such as transport paths and built-up areas
•    The use of existing transport corridors such as streets or railroad lines 
•    Supply security in Germany and Europe as well as the other connected regions along the pipeline.

What begins as a wide planning corridor is then narrowed down to an exact route in a dialogue between the authorities and the building contractors.