Nord Stream to begin construction of Baltic Sea gas pipeline in Finnish territorial waters next week

Much-criticised pipe coating factory would like to continue operation in Finland even after this project

Gerhard Schröder

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The construction of the natural gas pipeline running from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea will commence in Finnish territorial waters next week.
      According to Nord Stream, the company responsible for building the pipeline, a vessel arriving from Sweden’s direction before Midsummer is capable of laying the pipeline on the seabed at a rate of about 2.5 kilometres per day.
     
The company finished clearing the route of the planned pipeline just last week. On the Finnish side, 49 wartime explosives were removed from the seabed.
      The building of the pipeline has also been prepared by levelling out some of the uneven areas of the bottom with rock material.
      On Wednesday, Nord Stream Chairman of the Shareholders' Committee Gerhard Schröder paid a visit to the harbour in Kotka, through which parts of the pipeline will be transported to the Baltic Sea.
     
The former Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany estimated that the initial criticism towards the pipeline has subsided thanks to the company’s openness with regard to reporting on the project, as well the cooperation that had been carried out with various interested NGOs.
      “We have succeeded in convincing those who initially opposed to the project”, Schröder said.
     
Just over a third of the gas pipeline’s parts will be fitted with a concrete coating at a factory in Kotka.
      The aim is to increase the pipeline’s weight and to protect it for example against blows from ships’ anchors.
      The company responsible for the coating operation is the French Eupec Pipecoatings S.A.
      Jan Sanders, managing director at Eupec, hopes that the company will be able to continue its operation at the factory even after the Nord Stream pipeline has been completed next year.
     
The authorities have criticised the working conditions at the Eupec factory.
      In the autumn, cement dust within the facility was discovered to have caused pulmonary symptoms in some of the workers.
      According to occupational safety inspector Jouni Anttonen from the Regional State Administrative Agency of Southern Finland, last autumn the situation was “catastrophic”.
      “Certain doctors insisted that the factory be shut down”, Anttonen says.
      According to Anttonen, the air quality inside the factory has since improved. Eupec factory director Tom Tonnessen insists that the dust problem has now been rectified.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Work on gas pipeline to begin in Gulf of Finland in June (15.2.2010)
  Nord Stream mine clearance operation delayed in Gulf of Finland (20.11.2009)
  Finnish environment officials give go-ahead for undersea gas pipeline (12.2.2010)
  Gas pipeline factory built in Kotka at record speed (24.11.2009)

Links:
  Nord Stream (Wikipedia)

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