Nord Steam begins laying down of pipeline in Baltic Sea

Nord Steam has begun the laying down of its natural gas pipeline in the waters of all five Baltic Sea countries through which it will pass.

The company said that a section of pipeline has been laid by the Castoro Sei pipelay vessel that reached Danish waters, approximately 50km south of Bornholm.

Castoro Sei had picked up the pipeline in German waters where the Castoro Dieci had completed the shallow-water section at and near the German landfall.

In the meantime at the other end of the 1,224km pipeline route, the pipelay vessel, the 300m long Solitaire, has just reached the Finnish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) having completed a key section in Russian waters.

It had picked up the pipeline where Castoro Sei had completed the section at the Russian landfall.

Castoro Sei had started laying the Nord Stream Pipeline in April 2010 in the Swedish EEZ off Gotland, laying pipe in an easterly direction into Finnish waters before laying down the pipeline and moving on to Russia.

Nord Stream has now completed over 500km of the 1,224km natural gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea and is on schedule to start transporting gas from Russia to customers in the European Union in late 2011.