Saipem’s pipelay vessel Castoro Sei has arrived in the Finnish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to continue construction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea.
Offshore staff
ZUG, Switzerland -- Saipem’s pipelay vessel Castoro Sei has arrived in the Finnish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to continue construction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea.
The vessel will lay around 20 km (12.4 mi) of the 375-km (233-mi) Finnish portion of line this summer in the western part of the Gulf of Finland, before heading off to Russian waters to tackle the Russian landfall.
Much of the remaining section in Finnish waters (around 230 km, or 143 mi) will be installed by Allseas’ Solitaire between late fall and winter 2010, after the Russian landfall has been completed. Installations have been timed to minimize disruption to other marine activity in this congested area.
To date, around 175 km 109 mi) of the first Nord Stream pipeline has been installed, starting in the Swedish EEZ off the island of Gotland.
While operating in the Gulf of Finland, both pipelay vessels will be supplied continuously with concrete weight coated steel pipes, each 12 m (39 ft) long and weighing around 23 metric tons (25 tons), shipped out from bases in Kotka and Hanko, Finland.
