Solitaire will construct the majority of the Finnish section of Nord Stream during autumn 2010 and early 2011.
Nord Stream resumes construction of the Finnish section of its natural gas pipeline, as the world´s largest pipelay vessel Solitaire is scheduled to arrive on Thursday in the Finnish EEZ from Russian waters to continue laying pipe in a westerly direction. “Solitaire will construct the majority of the Finnish section of the Nord Stream Pipeline during October 2010 and January 2011, at an average rate of approximately 2.4 kilometres a day. Construction is proceeding on schedule”, says Simon Bonnell, Nord Stream´s Task Force Manager Finland.
On board the Solitaire – operated by the Swiss company Allseas – over 400 personnel work twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The vessel is 300 metres long and 41 metres wide and is dynamically-positioned so that it can operate without anchors. Solitaire uses positioning technology based on satellite navigation, allowing precise position-keeping with 10 thrusters. The benefits of using this dynamically-positioned pipelay barge are that the only contact with the seabed is the pipeline touchdown so that the interaction with the mine lines (and required munitions clearance) and associated environmental impacts are minimised. As the safety zone around the pipelay spread is 2 kilometres rather than 3 kilometres for the anchored pipelay barge the impact to other marine traffic is decreased in this heavily congested area. National monitoring programmes have been set up to monitor possible environmental impacts.
Solitaire will construct 227 of the 375 kilometres of the Finnish section of the pipeline. This vessel started laying pipe in Russian waters in the beginning of September and has so far laid approximately 120 kilometres of the pipeline. Three pipe carrier vessels will trans-ship the pipe segments to Solitaire from Kotka, where they were concrete weight coated in EUPEC´s factory, and the Hanko marshalling yard.
27 Ноября 2024 | среда | 22:48
