A competitor of Nord Stream 2 entered the Polish coast

The construction of the Baltic Pipe, a competitor to Nord Stream 2, is nearing completion ahead of schedule. The pipe-laying vessel Castoro Sei has approached the coast of Poland and it remains to lay 5 km of pipes before the gas pipeline reaches the Polish coast.

Castoro Sei will be able to complete its work in Polish waters by the end of this week, as the ship is laying more than 2 km of pipes per day. However, 15 km of the gas pipeline still needs to be completed in Danish waters off the island of Zeeland and the offshore section from Denmark to Poland will be ready. The logistics hub of the Danish-Polish project is located in the German port of Mukran.



By the end of June, the pipe-laying vessels Pioneering Spirit, Lorelay and Tog Mor of the Swiss company Allseas had laid about 110 km of pipes on the bottom of the North Sea. They completed the construction of a section from the Baltic Pipe connection point to the Europipe II gas pipeline from Norway to Germany to the Danish peninsula of Jutland. Backfilling of the gas pipeline in this section will be carried out until mid-October.

Since the end of June, the pipe-laying vessels Castorone and Castoro Sei of the Italian company Saipem have laid about 250 km of Baltic Pipe at the bottom of the Baltic. The average construction speed is estimated at 4,325 km per day. The total length of this section is 270 km. In August, the Baltic Pipe crossed the Nord Stream 2. Earlier, the Danish maritime authority reported that the construction of the Baltic Pipe in the Baltic should be completed by the end of January 2022.

In May, construction of an onshore section in Denmark, 50 km long, was blocked by the decision of the Environmental and Food Appeals Board, which revoked a permit previously issued by the Environmental Protection Agency. Now the Danish gas operator Energinet must prepare a new set of documents and convince environmentalists of the harmlessness of the project.

We remind you that on April 30, 2021, Polish President Andrzej Duda announced the start of construction of the Baltic Pipe. Commissioning of the gas pipeline is scheduled for October 1, 2022. However, the utilization of the pipeline's capacities is still in question. The Polish state-owned company PGNiG can fill the pipeline with raw materials only by 1/3. At the same time, the Poles have reserved 80% of the capacity of the project, designed for 10 billion cubic meters. m. of natural gas per year.