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Preparations on three ships that will place Baltic Pipe at the bottom of the Baltic
Author:Mariusz Dasiewicz
The Baltic Pipe pipeline on the Baltic will simultaneously arrange two or three units involved in the operation – reported the gas transmission operator Gaz-System. We already know what tasks will be assigned to the individual ships of Saipem.
The gas pipeline between Denmark and Poland will be arranged by a total of three vessels belonging to Saipemu, the contractor of the section – Castorone, Castoro 6 and Castoro 10. At a given moment one or two of them will be working.
According to the Gas-System, Castoro 10 will set up a pipeline in the coastal zone of Denmark. Castoro 6 will be responsible for the remaining larger fragments in Danish maritime and maritime areas in Poland. Castorone, on the other hand, will put the gas pipeline in deeper waters, mainly Swedish, but in some places also in Polish and Danish. The offshore pipeline will start in the summer.
The Gas-System stressed that the gas pipeline design stage not only identified most of the obstacles such as wrecks or boulders, but also included their presence in determining the final route. Moreover, as the operator stressed, the purity tests on the bottom of the installation corridor are carried out at each stage of the installation. Thanks to this, it is possible to remove the found objects or, in case of major obstacles, to correct the pipeline route.
On the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline there are several dozen different junctions with existing sub-marine infrastructure, such as power cables, telecommunications cables, and gas pipelines. The intersection of this infrastructure must be regulated each time by appropriate agreements with its owners.
According to PAP Gaz-System, the operator has already signed all crossing agreements. However, it cannot reveal details because these agreements require confidentiality.
Baltic Pipe is a strategic project to create a new supply path for natural gas from Norway to Danish and Polish markets and to end-users in neighbouring countries. Gas pipeline will be able to send 10 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually to Poland and 3 billion cubic metres from Poland to Denmark. The investors are transmission operators: Danish Energinet and Polish Gaz-System. It is expected to start on 1 October 2022.
Saipem is an Italian engineering company, specialized in construction and services for the offshore mining sector. The EUR 280 million contract, signed in May 2020 by Gaz-System with Saipe Limited, a British company of Saipemu, includes the arrangement of approximately 275 km of gas pipeline by the companies.
Source: PAP
