/ world today news/ Against the background of the sanctions, Gazprom began to take real actions to reduce its technological dependence. The company officially announced the received opportunities for the construction of “Nord Stream-2” in cooperation with a European company.
“Gazprom” received a special vessel “Akademik Chersky”, which is equipped with a crane for laying pipes for the gas pipeline, Deputy Chairman of the state monopoly Vitaly Markelov announced at a press conference on May 19. “Gazprom built a vessel for laying the pipes and for working on the shelf – it is universal,” he said. The same vessel will also be used for work on the Sakhalin shelf.
The pipe laying machine is a rare piece of equipment – there are no more than 10 such facilities in the world. Until that moment, all of Gazprom’s large underwater gas pipelines were built by Western contractors, with the largest volume of orders received by Italian Saipem, which worked on Blue Stream and Nord Stream. In the face of sanctions and huge political resistance from the US and the EU, Gazprom’s plans to create gas pipelines bypassing Ukraine through the Baltic and Black seas, the absence of pipe-laying capacity could prevent the projects from being completed.
According to Kommersant, the pipe-laying facility can be used in the construction of Nord Stream-2. “Potentially, it can be used in the construction process of Nord Stream-2, but the complex work on the pipeline requires the availability of people, technology, competences, licenses and additional equipment. Gazprom itself talks more about off-the-shelf use of the unique technique. Therefore, to lay the pipes along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, to one degree or another, foreigners will be attracted,” the president of the National Association of Oil and Gas Service Viktor Haikov told “Vzglyad”.
Gazprom and the Nord Stream-2 consortium did not comment on the information. The tender for the implementation of the pipe laying activities for the gas pipeline has already been announced, the contractor will probably be clear at the end of the year.
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