franco Mon Apr 12, 2021 4:43 pm
Akademik Chersky went along the second string of Nord Stream 2
On Cosmonautics Day and the 60th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight into space, the Akademik Chersky pipelayer began moving along the route of the second string of Nord Stream 2. The vessel will lay 85 kilometers in Danish and German waters.
Today, April 12, the Akademik Chersky pipelayer began moving along the route of line A of Nord Stream 2. According to the navigation portals Marinetraffic and Vesselfinder, the vessel took off near the point indicated by the Danish Maritime Authority as the starting point for construction.
Judging by the route of the pipelayer and the Murman vessel, which carries out underwater monitoring, the end of the gas pipeline was previously lifted aboard the Akademik Chersky.
By 10.00 Moscow time, the ship had passed about two hundred meters. Whether it resumed laying, however, or is still preparing to start work is unknown. Nord Stream 2 AG replied that they could not provide detailed information on the construction and would promptly inform about further plans. Earlier, the company clarified that in April in the area of the island of Bornholm, the pipelayer continues to prepare for construction.
Line A contains the longest unfinished section of Nord Stream 2. In Danish waters "Akademik Chersky" will have to lay 68.5 kilometers, and in German waters - 16.5 kilometers. The operator of the project indicated that it plans to complete the laying of the string in Danish waters by the end of September. Obviously, the timing was taken with a margin.
In May-September last year, the vessel underwent modernization in the German port of Mukran, which is the logistics center of Nord Stream 2 in Germany. And even earlier, on February 5, Gazprom Flot, which was then the owner of the vessel, completed a tender to equip the vessel. The technical documentation stated that after the work, the productivity of the pipelayer should be at least 120-160 joints (up to 2 km per day). Thus, the ship can lay down by the end of May.
However, as the experience of the Fortuna barge, which is completing line B, shows, the weather can make adjustments. Thus, the ship resumed the completion of the Danish section with a length of 49 kilometers in early February, but was forced to stand for at least three weeks due to storms and rearrangement of anchors. The speed of laying "Fortuna" on favorable days is more than 1,100 meters per day, but due to stops the average pace of work is kept at the level of 500 meters. By April 12, the barge had laid 32.5 km. The project operator indicated in the updated work schedule for the Danish Energy Office that the average pipe-laying speed would be 400 meters per day. The document said that by the end of May, "Fortuna" will complete work in Danish waters, and by July it will hand over the German section of 13.9 km.
For the coming week, the Swedish Institute of Hydrology and Meteorology (SMHI) predicts relatively calm weather. On some days, the wind speed can reach 12 meters per second. In addition, the Baltic Sea begins to warm up and fogs promise in the southern region.
US authorities, meanwhile, continue to threaten the Baltic gas pipeline project from Russia to Germany. The new administration intends to use all available levers to prevent the completion of Nord Stream 2, Joseph Giordano-Scholz, spokesman for the US Embassy in Germany, told Tagesspiegel.
“We will continue to register any organization involved in any potentially unsanctioned activity, and made it clear that any company risks sanctions if it participates in Nord Stream 2,” the diplomat said. Earlier, a report on the project was submitted to Congress, but only the Fortuna barge and its owner, KBT-Rus, were sanctioned, which were already under American restrictions. The administration will next submit its Nord Stream 2 report to US lawmakers in May.
Recall that after the introduction of the first sanctions against the project in December 2019, the Swiss Allseas left it. After that, Gazprom uses Russian vessels.
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