Nord Stream’s First String Pulled Ashore in Portovaya Bay

Important milestone of the Russian landfall construction

July 28, 2010 | Portovaya Bay, Vyborg region, Russia | Nord Stream construction at the Russian landfall has reached an important milestone: the first of the two pipelines surfaced from the sea onto the Russian shore. The pipeline string was pulled ashore from the pipelay vessel Castoro Sei, moored approximately one kilometre away from the shoreline. The second string will be pulled ashore in a week’s time. In the meantime, construction of the 1.5 kilometre onshore part of the pipeline and landfall facilities is progressing.

The 12-metre long pipes weighing approximately 24 tonnes each are welded together aboard the Castoro Sei into double joints to form a pipeline string which is then pulled ashore with an onshore anchored winch and a 121 millimetre diameter pull-in wire. The pipeline string is laid in a trench, which will be backfilled up to the initial seabed level. This will protect the Nord Stream Pipeline from any external impacts, including ice, currents and waves. In order to protect the excavation and limit the sediment spreading, a temporary causeway has been constructed on both sides of the pipeline route in the landfall surf zone.

Portovaya Bay near Vyborg is the starting point of the Nord Stream Pipeline through the Baltic Sea. At this point Nord Stream will be connected to the gas transportation system of Russia via the Gryazovets-Vyborg onshore pipeline. Gas will be fed into Nord Stream by the Portovaya compressor station located about 3 kilometres from the shore. Both the Gryazovets-Vyborg pipeline and Portovaya compressor station are being built and will be operated by Gazprom.

Nord Stream’s offshore pipe laying was started by Castoro Sei in April 2010. Before arriving in Portovaya Bay the vessel had laid around 230 kilometres of the pipeline in Swedish and Finnish waters. After the shore pull and the laying of 7.5 kilometres in Russian waters she will resume pipe laying in Finnish waters, while pipe laying in Russian waters will be continued by another pipelay vessel, the Solitaire. The shore pull at the German landfall was completed by Castoro Dieci on 16 July. Nord Stream’s construction schedule has been optimised to meet environmental restrictions while making use of construction capacities as efficiently as possible.

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