Nord Stream To Close Temporarily Sep.11-22
The Nord Stream company said August 30 it will be conducting long-planned annual maintenance works on its existing twin gas pipelines system (NS1) between September 11 and 22, 2017.
The maintenance work will require a temporary shutdown of both lines, it said. The NS1 system began operations over five years ago.
"Regular maintenance allows us to ensure that our pipeline system is operated in an efficient, safe and reliable way”, Nord Stream AG’s Managing Director Alexey Zagorovskiy pointed out. Each of the existing two NS lines has capacity of 27.5bn m3/yr, making a total of 55bn m3/yr.
Gazprom has maximised use of NS1 and its onshore continuation, the Opal pipeline, particularly since a court ruling lifted restrictions on the Russian giant's use of Opal from August 1 for its export flows. The Nord Stream company is owned by a consortium of Gazprom and western companies.
Gazprom insisted August 30 it will press ahead with construction of its wholly-owned NS2 pipeline project, which will match NS1's capacity, regardless of US sanctions. On August 31, Saipem said that it has been awarded some NS2 pipelay work; Allseas is the main NS2 pipelay contractor.
NS2 will be wholly-owned by Gazprom but five western partners are providing substantial financing.
Mark Smedley