Black Sea pipelay under way

Offshore staff

MOSCOW-- Construction work has started on the 159.5-km (99-mi) offshore section of Gazprom’s Szhubga – Lazarevskoye- Sochi gas pipeline in the Russian sector of the Black Sea.

The pipeline will be laid on a route parallel to, but 4.5 km (2.8 mi) offshore, the coastline, terminating at the Kudepsta gas distribution site near Sochi, the location for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

The offshore construction program involves a fleet of service vessels, with two barges handling the pipelay. The C-Master barge will perform installations in medium-depth waters, with the Bigfoot 1 laying pipes in shallow waters.

Last week, 12 km (7.5 mi) of the onshore line pipes had been installed, with horizontal directional drilling under way to accommodate the landfall sections near the town of Tuapse and the Kudepsta settlement.

4/8/2010