Nord Stream Completes Second Offshore Pipe

The second Nord Stream offshore pipe has been successfully completely days ahead of schedule, the Nord Stream consortium has said.

The announcement heralds the completion of underwater tie-in operations begun at the end of May, during which three sections of the pipeline were welded together underwater. These sections were joined inside a hyperbaric welding habitat on the seabed at two locations, off the coast of Finland and off the Swedish island of Gotland in June.

This is the second of two underwater tie-ins to be completed on the second pipeline.

The offshore pipeline will be de-watered and dried next month, before being joined to the onshore landfall sections in Russia and Germany in August. Following on from this, the second line will be tested before it becomes operational in the third quarter this year.

The second line will bolster the capacity of the Nord Stream pipeline, which opened its first pipeline for transit at the end of last year. This will bring the capacity of the pipeline from 27 billion cubic metres a year to 55 billion cubic metres.

The dual-pipeline will bring gas supplies from Russian majority shareholder Gazprom to the European Union. Gazprom holds a 51 per cent share in the Nord Stream project.Wintershall Holding and E.ON Ruhrgas each hold a 15.5 percent stake with Gasunie and GDF SUEZ holding the remaining two 9 per cent stakes.