Energy, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Gas, Legislation

The Estonian state-owned transmission system operator Elering and the Finnish state-owned company Baltic Connector OY on Thursday signed an agreement with the company Allseas for the installment of the largest portion of the Balticconnector interconnection -- the offshore gas pipeline, Elering said.

The installation work will start in summer 2018 with seabed preparations. The actual pipeline installation will be carried out in summer 2019. The work is expected to be completed in fall 2019, after which the next phase will be to prepare the offshore pipeline for commercial use.

Elering CEO Taavi Veskimagi said that the signing of the gas interconnection's most substantial agreement will give the security for completing the entire project by 2020. "The construction tenders for the Kiili-Paldiski pipeline and the Paldiski and Puiatu compressor stations that are to be built as part of Balticconnector on the Estonian territory are also at the final stage. Thus, the main construction agreements will hopefully be signed in the near future and real construction work will start on all objects," he said.

Corinth Pipeworks Pipe Industry SA in its Greek factory this week started the production of the portion of the Balticconnector gas pipe to be located in the sea. In addition, the construction of the gas metering station (GMS) at Karksi, South Estonia, and building a valve station at Lilli near the Estonian-Latvian border that are part of the Balticconnector cluster are also about to start in the next few months.

The construction of Balticconnector enables Finland to open the gas market, create a regional gas market encompassing the Baltic countries and Finland and increase the security of supply of gas in the region.

The underwater portion of the gas pipeline will run from the Pakri peninsula in northwestern Estonia to Inkoo, Finland. In total 77 kilometers of pipe will be laid on the sea bottom. The gas pipeline will enable the two-way movement of natural gas. The throughput of the gas pipeline with a 500 millimeter nominal diameter and up to 80 bar pressure is 7.2 million cubic meters of gas per day. The length of Balticconnector's section on the mainland of Estonia from Kiili to Paldiski is 55 kilometeres and the length of the section from Inkoo to Siuntio in Finland is 21 kilometers.

The European Union is to support the construction of the Balticconnector cluster with 206 million euros. The total cost of the project is approximately 300 million euros.

Allseas Group S.A. is a Swiss-based offshore pipelay and subsea construction company.