Nord Stream II looks to hire contractors

The Nord Stream II natural gas pipeline consortium has started the process of hiring contractors for work on the pipeline project, designed to double the gas pumped from Russia across the Baltic Sea.

“We are expecting the tenders to be released in early 2016 and a decision to be made by the end of next year,” said a source, who spoke to Wall Street Journal.

“There are only a few companies with the capabilities to execute this job and all of them will want to win the work in the current environment.”

Contractors have to submit prequalification documents by this Friday, 23 October.

The project

The Nord Stream II natural gas pipelines will stretch for some 1200 km across the Baltic Sea from Russia’s Baltic coast to the German coast near Greifswald, without an intermediate compressor station.

As with the Nord Stream Pipeline, each pipeline will have a design capacity of 27.5 billion m³/yr. Made up of individual pipe joints of 12 m, each line of Nord Stream II will require approximately 100 000 24 t concrete weight coated steel pipes laid on the seabed. The pipelines will have a constant internal diameter of 1153 mm(48 in.).

How the bidding process will work

Reports suggest that the bidding process for Nord Stream II is likely to closely mirror Nord Stream I, with larger packages for the pipelaying, pipe construction and construction of shore facilities, as well as lots of smaller contracts in areas such as logistics, communications, information technology and transport.

The pipe contract

The pipe supply contract is the largest package being offered and involves 2.2 million t of 48 in. pipes that will run to a total of 2500 km in length, according to Nord Stream 2. This package is worth in excess of US$4 billion.

Edited from various sources by Elizabeth Corner

Sources: Wall Street Journal, Kyiv Post

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/project-news/19102015/nord-stream-ii-looks-to-hire-contractors/