Nord Stream Signs 650 Million Euros Contract with EUPEC
Important step of the pipeline project to start gas deliveries in 2011
July 30, 2008 | Zug | Yesterday Nord Stream AG (Zug) and EUPEC (Dunkerque) signed a contract for the supply of concrete coating and logistics services for the Nord Stream pipeline project. The agreement is an important step enabling Nord Stream to start to deliver the additional gas that Europe needs from 2011. The contract with EUPEC is worth about 650 million Euros. Around 100 million will be invested in creating the infrastructure required around the Baltic Sea coast.
The EUPEC contract covers the concrete coating of pipe segments and their transport, handling and storage in the Baltic Sea region. To ensure that pipeline construction can start as planned in early 2010, for logistic reasons one third of the segments required for the 1,220 kilometres pipeline must be stored and ready for laying at various logistics sites on the Baltic coast. To meet this schedule, EUPEC has already started constructing a concrete weight coating yard near Mukran on the German island of Rügen. A further facility will be constructed in Kotka, Finland. Delivery of steel pipes to these interim stock yards started in May 2008. Currently, around 12,000 segments are in storage at Mukran, a further 1,500 at Kotka, ready for the coating process to start at the beginning of 2009. The logistics plan envisages two further interim stock yards in Sweden – at Slite and Karlskrona – and a third in Hanko, Finland. From these the treated pipes will be transported to the pipelay vessels – located at a maximum distance of 100 nautical miles.
In addition to setting up the logistics chain, Nord Stream focuses on obtaining consent to construct and install the pipeline in the territorial waters or exclusive economic zones of the five “affected” Baltic Sea countries. As part of the international consultation laid down in the Espoo Convention, a final draft of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report will be presented to all Baltic Sea countries in October. National applications to build the pipeline will be submitted in late 2008 and early 2009.
An economic boost for the Baltic Sea region
The construction of the concrete coating yards for the pipeline project will bring employment and further regional economic development. The coating and interim stock yards in Mukran and Kotka will create about 150 additional jobs at each site for at least three years. Investments in the envisaged logistics centres in Slite, Karlskrona and Hanko are assumed to bring further economic impulses, potentially creating about 25 jobs at each site. Generally, regions benefit from the renewal and extension of port facilities and the resulting improvement in infrastructure.
