GAZ-SYSTEM signed contract with Saipem Limited for the performance of works related to laying the gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea. The scope of this contract covers also the landfalls where the offshore part will be connected with the onshore components in Poland and Denmark. The contract value is approximately EUR 280 million and it has been co-financed by the EU.
At present, Gaz-System has already all necessary permits and binding agreements with all the main contractors and suppliers necessary to start construction of the gas pipeline to connect the Danish and Polish shores.
Baltic Pipe, the project that is key for Poland’s energy security and of importance to the European Union, is being implemented in strict accordance with the adopted schedule. Gas transmission from the Norwegian shelf to Poland along this new route will start on 1st October 2022.
The contract with Saipem covers the following main elements:
- construction of two microtunnels on the Danish and Polish shores (the technology will help protect the beaches, cliffs and other elements of the natural environment),
- transport of pipes from the marshalling yard to pipelay vessels,
- joining the pipes to form the pipeline and lowering it to the Baltic Sea bottom,
- pipeline installation and its stabilisation as well as the performance of all works to protect both the pipeline and its crossings with other subsea infrastructure,
- connecting the offshore pipeline with Baltic Pipe onshore components in Poland and Denmark,
- performance of tests, participation in commissioning of the offshore part as well as checking its functioning within the rest of the Baltic Pipe infrastructure in both countries.
According to the schedule, first works within Saipem’s scope will be commenced in the 2nd half of this year and, among other things, will consist in preparing landfall work sites in Poland and Denmark as well as beginning construction works necessary for microtunnelling.
It is also expected that the 2nd half of this year will see the start of activities at sea – launch of the pipeline pre-lay route surveys. Vessels preparing the seabed for pipeline installation will mobilise in the Baltic in the 1st half of next year. Pipelay as such will start in the summer of 2021. The pipeline handover for operation is planned in October 2022.