Boskalis, Van Oord joint venture wins Nord Stream 2 gig LoI

Dutch energy and dredging services provider Boskalis has been awarded a letter of intent in a joint venture with Van Oord for rock placement services for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project.

The award was made by the project developer Nord Stream 2 AG and is a part of the construction of the planned gas pipeline running through the Baltic Sea, connecting Russian gas fields to European buyers.

The joint venture between Boskalis and Van Oord will join the more than 200 companies from 17 countries which won contracts to work on this international energy infrastructure project.

Boskalis said on Thursday that the contract value was approximately EUR 250 million ($286 million), with a 50 percent share for Boskalis. Contract details are expected to be finalized in the next few weeks.

Rock needs to be installed at specific locations along the pipeline route to level the seabed and to protect the pipelines. The contract scope includes the sourcing of rock from quarries in the Baltic region. The project will be executed in a 50/50 partnership, and multiple specialized fallpipe vessels will be deployed in the period 2018-2019.

In the period 2010-2012 Boskalis was also contracted for the rock placement for the first Nord Stream project and also constructed the landfall in Germany. In 2010, the partner on the project, Van Oord, was also involved in constructing the first Nord Stream pipeline. Namely, the company installed the pipeline landfall near Vyborg in Russia.

The two 1,200-km Nord Stream 2 pipelines will mostly follow the route of the existing Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic Sea – from the coast of Russia to Greifswald on Germany’s northern coast. It will have the capacity to transport up to 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year from Russia to Europe, connecting with pipelines within the European Union for onwards transmission.

Nord Stream 2 AG said in a separate statement that the total value of contracts so far awarded on the project is more than four billion euros and that the project is progressing according to schedule.

As far as the pipes for the pipelines go, Wasco Coating started work on the concrete weight coating of the Nord Stream 2 pipes in late March.

After Nord Stream 2 AG had awarded Wasco Coatings Europe a contract for concrete weight coating, storage, and logistics of the 200,000 pipes for the namesake pipeline, Wasco awarded Denmark’s Blue Water Shipping a contract for the transport, handling, and storage of 113,000 of the pipes in late June.