Allseas Secures NS2 Pipelay Contract
Gazprom-owned pipeline developer Nord Stream 2 has a contract for offshore pipelay to Allseas, which has a similar contract to lay another Gazprom venture TurkStream. As yet, neither project is yet cleared for construction.
Nord Stream 2 announced April 11 it signed a contract for offshore pipelay in the Baltic Sea with Allseas last week. NS2 is designed to have two lines each of 27.5bn m3/yr, the same configuration as the existing Nord Stream pipeline system.
Allseas, based in Switzerland but mainly active in the Netherlands, will undertake offshore pipelay work for both NS2 lines in 2018 and 2019 using three pipelay vessels: Pioneering Spirit, Solitaire and Audacia. One of these Solitaire previously laid parts of the Nord Stream pipeline in the Gulf of Finland.
Last week's contract award to Allseas followed a letter of intent agreed between both parties last December and followed an international tender, said the Nord Stream 2 company, adding that other tenders including for the nearshore pipelay work in Russia and Germany are ongoing.
Nord Stream 2 added that its NS2 project is “proceeding as planned”, including engineering, procurement, surveys, environmental impact assessments and permitting. Gazprom said last month it had received a number – but still not yet all – permits for TurkStream's offshore construction.
Pioneering Spirit (formerly Pieter Schelte), the world's largest construction vessel, was contracted last December to start laying the first of the planned twin TurkStream pipelines in the Black Sea, starting 2H2017; final consents however to lay both TurkStream and NS2 have yet to be granted.
Danish potential snag
On April 10, NS2 hit a potential snag when the Danish government said it will be proposing a bill that will allow it to take foreign and security policy considerations into consideration when dealing with applications for offshore pipelines within its territorial waters – something not currently possible under existing Danish law. It said it had yet to decide whether to apply the new legislation to NS2.
Update: The Nord Stream 2 company also April 12 announced the start of its environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedure in Russia noting that, based on its analysis of the route and landfall options, the Narva Bay route in the Kingisepp District of the Leningrad Region has been defined as the preferred option, due to its smaller overall environmental and social impact; the final decision will be made by the Russian environmental authorities.
Mark Smedley