The 1,224 km Nord Stream Pipeline will establish a direct link between Russia’s vast proven gas reserves, via Portovaya Bay, and the European gas transportation systems, and will deliver gas to Belgium, the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, and the Czech Republic. The project will involve two parallel 48 inch diameter pipelines, each with a capacity of 27.5 Bcm/a. Fabricated from high-tensile X70 grade steel, the twin pipelines will run under the Baltic Sea from the Russian coast near Vyborg, to the German coast near Greifswald. The first pipeline will start transporting gas in 2011, and the second pipe will be completed in 2012. Gas transported by Nord Stream will provide 25 per cent of the extra imports needed in the European Union by 2030.
Headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, Nord Stream AG was established to design, construct, and operate the pipeline. The project shareholders are Gazprom, with a 51 per cent stake, German companies Wintershall Holding AG and E.ON Ruhrgas AG, each with a 15.5 per cent stake, Dutch firm N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie with 9 per cent, and French firm GDF Suez with the remaining 9 per cent interest.
Work on the Nord Stream Pipeline has been underway on Saipem S.p.A.’s flat-bottomed pipelay vessel Castoro Dieci, which is anchored around 1 km from the German landfall, to weld together the approximately 12 m long pipes to form the first pipeline. Other vessels which will be used to lay the pipeline include Allseas’ Solitaire, which will construct a 342.5 km section of the pipeline between kilometre point (KP) 7.5 in Russian waters and KP 350 in the Finnish Exclusive Economic Zone at a rate of approximately 2.4 km per day. The remaining sections are being constructed by Saipem’s Castoro Sei pipelay vessel, including the section at the Russian landfall in Portovaya Bay, near Vyborg.
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