Gaz-System has started laying the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea. The company said that laying has started in Danish waters near the island of Bornholm.
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Gaz-System informed that on Sunday Castorone – one of the sea ships responsible for laying the offshore gas pipeline between Poland and Denmark, started laying the Baltic Pipe in the Baltic Sea. “Gaz-System is starting to lay the offshore section so that the entire project can be completed and launched with full capacity in 2022. The Baltic Pipe will then be one of the main elements guaranteeing Poland’s energy security” – said Piotr Naimski, government plenipotentiary quoted in the press release. Strategic Energy Infrastructure.
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According to the company, “laying the nearly 275 km offshore gas pipeline will take the next few months.” “If the weather conditions allow it, the whole process will end this year” – he added.
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The president of Gaz-System, Tomasz Stępień, pointed out that “after a 5-year period of negotiating, designing and selecting contractors, the construction of the first ever Polish offshore gas pipeline has started”. “By the end of this year, we plan to weld and lay 275 kilometers of gas pipeline on the bottom of the Baltic Sea that will connect the Polish and Danish coasts. In the deepest waters, the works will be performed by Castorone – one of the largest specialized ships of this type in the world” – said Stępień.
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Laying the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline
The Baltic Pipe offshore gas pipeline will be laid by three floating assembly units: Castorone, Castoro Sei and Castoro 10.
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Castorone is the largest ship involved in the construction of an offshore gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea. As explained, it uses a dynamic positioning system, thanks to which it is possible to maneuver it with high accuracy. It is over 300 meters long and almost 40 meters wide, and it can take up to 700 people on board. It also has a helipad and several stations for welding individual sections of pipes and connecting them into the target gas pipeline.
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“The welded gas pipeline is lowered using a special ramp located at the stern of the ship. It consists of three parts, which, by adjusting the slope, allow the pipeline to be installed at different depths” – we read.
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The next two ships, Castoro Sei and Castoro 10, are currently stationed in Rotterdam and – according to Gaz-System’s assurances – are being prepared to join the laying of the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline.
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About the gas pipeline
Baltic Pipe is a strategic project that is to create a new route of natural gas supplies from Norway to the Danish and Polish markets and to end users in neighboring countries. The gas pipeline will be able to transport 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually to Poland and 3 billion cubic meters from Poland to Denmark.
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The investors are transmission operators: Danish Energinet and Polish Gaz-System. According to the plans, the pipeline is to start operating on October 1, 2022.
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PAP
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photo-source">Main photo source: https://www.baltic-pipe.eu/
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