Baltic Pipe construction at full throttle with 50km done

Saipem’s pipelay vessel Castorone has installed 50 kilometers of the gas pipeline for the Baltic Pipe project in the Baltic Sea.

Approximately 225 kilometers remain to be laid by Saipem’s pipelay trio of Castorone, Castoro Sei and Castoro 10, project developers reported.

Castorone began laying the offshore gas pipeline at the end of June at a site close to the island of Bornholm, Denmark.

Baltic Pipe will create a new corridor supplying gas from Norway to the markets in Poland, Denmark and also neighboring countries.

The project recently faced a setback as the Danish Environmental and Food Appeals Board ruled to repeal the permit for the onshore part of Baltic Pipe in early June, stating that the environmental assessment does not sufficiently describe the measures taken to protect certain animal species.

Energinet and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency now need to make a new environmental impact assessment for the project, which could take up to 8 months of work.

However, shortly after the permit repeal, Danes allowed construction works to resume in certain parts of the project across Denmark.