EUPEC Starts Transhipments of Pipes Destined for the Nord Stream Pipeline to Slite, Sweden
Feb. 12, 2010 | Slite and Mukran | EUPEC started the transhipment of Concrete Weight Coated (CWC) pipes destined for the Nord Stream gas pipeline Project from their plant located in Sassnitz/Mukran, Germany to the Marshalling Yard in Slite, Gotland, Sweden.
After approximately 26 hours transit time, the first 160 pipes will arrive in Slite on the 12th of February 2010. In total 56,000 CWC pipes, each approximately 12 meters long, will be transhipped to Slite from Sassnitz/Mukran between now and early 2012. The CWC pipes will be stored and subsequently loaded out to pipe-laying vessels so that they reach their final destination on the seabed. Storage areas established by EUPEC, named Apotekskajen and Vikhagen, have a combined storage capacity of 6,500 pipes. In an operation called “ship-to-ship”, planned to take place from April to June 2010, CWC pipes from the transhipment vessels will be stored temporarily on the pier and transferred directly to the laying barge supply vessels, supplying them „just-in-time“ to the pipe-layer.
EUPEC's subcontractor NorSea, which is responsible for logistics to the three out of five Marshalling Yards in the Baltic Sea, has contracted a local Stevedoring company, Gotland Stuveri AB, to carry out the logistics on site in Slite. Gotland Stuveri AB, with over 50 employees dedicated to the Project, will handle approximately 160 pipes per vessel and unloading will take approximately 12 hours.
Slite is one of five locations for pipe storage for the Nord Stream Project. These five Marshalling Yards (MY) are located along the pipeline route at a maximum sailing distance of 100 nautical miles from the pipe laying operations. In addition to the two MY near the two EUPEC concrete weight coating plants in Mukran (Germany) and Kotka (Finland), three MY have been established in Karlskrona & Slite, Sweden and Hanko, Finland. EUPEC has already transhipped pipes from the Concrete Weight Coating plant in Sassnitz/Mukran in Germany to the MY in Karlskrona, Sweden, where storage began in August 2009. This month transhipments will also start to the MY in Hanko, Finland from the EUPEC CWC plant in Kotka, Finland.
