Name of the Project
Baltic Pipe project.

Location
The project will be built between Denmark and Poland, in the Baltic Sea.

Project Owner/s
The project is a joint venture between GAZ-SYSTEM and Energinet.dk.

Energinet is in charge of establishing the first three components, while GAZ-SYSTEM is responsible for the pipeline in the Baltic Sea and expansions in Poland.

Project Description
The project will create a new inter-European gas corridor, which will supply gas directly from Norway to the markets in Poland, Denmark and neighbouring countries. The new pipeline will increase gas transmission capacity by up to ten-billion cubic metres of gas a year.

The Baltic Pipe project will include:

• a 105-km- to 110-km-long new offshore gas pipeline from Norway’s pipeline, Europipe II, in the North Sea, to a receiving terminal;

• expansion of the Danish transmission system with a new gas pipeline about 210 km long;

• a compressor station, in Zeland, which will increase the pressure of the gas in the pipeline in the Baltic Sea;

• a 260-km- to 310-km-long offshore gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea between Denmark and Poland; and

• expansions of Poland’s transmission system.

The contract includes microtunnelling and civil works activities, in Denmark and Poland, extensive rockdumping, as well as pre- and post-lay trenching and backfilling activities.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Capital Expenditure
The project is estimated at DKr12-1 to DKr6-billion. The costs are split equally between Energinet and GAZ-SYSTEM.

Planned Start/End Date
The pipeline handover for operation is planned for October 2022.

Latest Developments
Saipem has been awarded a contract by GAZ-SYSTEM for the transportation and installation of a natural gas pipeline between Denmark and Poland.

The contract covers:

• 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;

• transporting 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 stabilisation, as well as the performance of all works to protect the pipeline and its crossings with other subsea infrastructure;

• connecting the offshore pipeline with Baltic pipe onshore components in Poland and Denmark; and

• the performance of tests, participation in the commissioning of the offshore part of the project, as well as checking its functioning within the rest of the Baltic Pipe infrastructure in both countries.

Saipem’s scope will start in the second half of 2020 and will include the preparation of landfall work sites in Poland and Denmark, as well as starting construction works necessary for microtunnelling.

It is also expected that activities at sea – the launch of the pipeline prelay route surveys – will start in the second half of 2020. Vessels preparing the seabed for pipeline installation will mobilise in the Baltic in the first half of 2021. Pipelaying will start in mid-2021.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Saipem (natural gas pipeline).

Contact Details for Project Information
GAZ-SYSTEM – Baltic Pipe Division, email sekretariat.balticpipe@gaz-system.pl.
Baltic Pipe senior project manager Søren Juul Larsen,email sjl@energinet.dk.