Offshore staff

MOSCOW-- Nord Stream AG has awarded Technip a $47.6 million frame contract for the Nord Stream pipelay project in the Baltic Sea, designed to export gas from fields in Russia to customers in Europe.

Technip’s center in Stavanger will execute the contract, which calls for four tie-ins on the two parallel pipelines that will run from Vyborg, Russia to Lubmin in Germany, transiting Russian, Finnish, Swedish and Danish waters en route. The pipelines will have a total length of around 1,220 km (758 mi).

Subsea tie-ins will be performed using Technip’s PRS pipeline repair system and the DSV Skandi Arctic. Tie-ins for the first pipeline are scheduled for mid-2011 and for the second in mid-2012.

Earlier this week, the Nord Stream consortium of Gazprom, BASF/Wintershall, E.ON Ruhrgas and Gasunie concluded financing for phase 1 of the project, estimated at $5.3 billion. The project’s shareholders are providing 30% of this amount, the remainder coming from 26 banks. Later this year, Nord Stream AG will approach the markets for financing for phase II.

Saipem’s pipelay vessel Castoro Sei is now cleared to start work on the first Nord Stream line next month. Allseas’ Solitaire will start working on the same line in September. Construction of the first line should be completed in 2011, with work on the parallel second line due to start next year and finish in 2012.

Twelve shipwrecks have been discovered in a corridor next to the Nord Stream pipeline route in the Swedish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), several of which were previously undetected. The findings came to light following seabed surveys as part of the preparatory works ahead of the pipelay, conducted by Swedish marine survey company Marin Mätteknik.

The newly located wrecks are in the corridor which will be used for anchor positioning by the pipelay barge during the installation program. Nord Stream’s partners have agreed with Sweden’s authorities to adapt the construction work so that the shipwrecks will be unaffected.

3/18/2010