Elering and the Baltic Connector OY have signed an agreement with Allseas to install the biggest section of the Balticconnector offshore gas pipeline between Estonia and Finland.
Balticconnector offshore construction will start this summer with seabed preparations to install the pipeline. According to the schedule, the actual submarine pipeline will be laid in summer 2019.
The work will be finished by autumn of 2020, after which preparations for the utilization of the pipeline will begin, the company explained.
Elering’s chairman, Taavi Veskimägi , noted that signing of the agreement will provide an assurance to complete the whole project by 2020. “Also, the construction procurements for the Kiili-Paldiski gas pipeline and Paldiski and Puiatu compression stations that will be built on Estonian territory within the Balticconnector project are in the final stages. This means that the main construction agreements will hopefully be signed in the near future, and actual construction work will begin on all objects.”
This week, Corinth Pipeworks Pipe Industry began producing the offshore pipes for Balticconnector in its Greek factory. Also, the coming months will see construction work on the Karksi new gas-metering station and on the Lilli pipeline intersection begin a part of the Balticconnector cluster.
The length of the submarine section of Balticconnector from Paldiski to Inkoo in Finland is 77 km. The capacity of the pipeline with 500 mm nominal diameter and up to 80 bar pressure is 7.2 million cubic meters of gas per day. The length of the land-based section of Balticconnector is 55 km from Kiili to Paldiski in Estonia and 21 km from Inkoo to Siuntio in Finland.
The European Union is supporting the construction of the Balticconnector cluster with 206 million euros. The total cost of the project is approximately 300 million euros.