Allseas vessel starts laying Nord Stream 2 pipes in Russian waters

Allseas-owned pipelay vessel Solitaire on Tuesday started laying the first line of the Nord Stream 2 twin gas pipeline in Russian waters.

Nord Stream 2 AG, a subsidiary of Russia’s Gazprom and operator of the Nord Stream 2 offshore gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea, said on Tuesday that the Solitaire would spend about a month constructing one of the two, approximately 100-kilometers-long sections in the Russian territorial sea.

Solitaire is a 300-meters-long and 41-meters-wide dynamically positioned vessel that will lay pipes around the clock seven days a week. It accommodates up to 420 people on board. The vessel is positioned using thrusters instead of anchors, which helps to minimize the impact on the environment and marine traffic, as only the pipeline itself touches the seabed along the pipeline route.

Pipe supply vessels will deliver the 12-meter, 24-tonne concrete weight coated steel pipes from the project’s nearest logistics hub in Kotka, Finland.

The operator also said that construction works were proceeding well and according to plans also at the Russian and German landfalls, the entry and exit points of the pipeline system.

Furthermore, offshore pipelay is on-going in the Swedish Exclusive Economic Zone by giant Pioneering Spirit vessel.

Over 1,100 kilometers of the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline have been laid in total so far, according to Nord Stream 2 AG.

Nord Stream 2 was designed as two parallel 48 inch lines, roughly 1,200 kilometers long, each starting from south-west of St Petersburg and ending at German coast, Greifswald. Nord Stream 2’s natural gas pipelines will have the capacity to transport 55 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Russian gas a year to the EU, for at least 50 years.

The length of the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline in Russia is some 114 kilometers offshore.

While the construction of the twin pipeline continues unobstructed in Russian, German, and Swedish waters, the project has encountered problems in Denmark. Namely, Nord Stream 2 AG recently accused Danish government of deliberately trying to delay the project by asking for the third route option despite two which had already been submitted.

Despite its disagreement with the Danish government, the operator submitted the third application in April but has also filed an appeal against the March 26th decision of the Danish Energy Agency related to the North-western permit application requesting the company to investigate and submit an environmental impact assessment (EIA), accompanied by a permit application, for a route south-east of Bornholm to the Danish Energy Board of Appeal.

Offshore Energy Today Staff

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