MT Group, a Lithuanian company implementing energy and industrial infrastructure projects in Europe, has successfully laid a high-pressure offshore pipeline with a diameter of 500 mm in the Baltic seabed near the port city of Paldiski, where it will be connected to the Estonian liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal later this year. The terminal is expected to be ready for operation by the end of November this year.
The contract for the construction of the offshore main gas pipeline was signed in mid-July 2022, and already the most demanding phase of the project has been completed. The offshore pipeline pull-in operation, which started on Friday, was carried out continuously until Monday morning. Four segments of the welded pipeline, each weighing 100 tonnes, were pulled one after the other from the shore towards the FSRU’s mooring jetty. Under the contract, which has a record duration of just 14 weeks, MT Group still has to connect the offshore part of the pipeline to the surface and carry out the commissioning and adjustment works. After this, all the conditions will be in place for berthing of the Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU vessel) at the Paldiski LNG terminal.
„In the entire history of our business, there has never been a case where an offshore pipeline has been built in such a short time. And not just any pipeline, but the most important energy independence pipeline in the region today. The equipment needed for such complex works – dredging equipment, specific tugs, pontoons, cranes – usually takes several years to get in place, but we have managed to mobilize all available resources and get everything done in record time,“ says Mindaugas Zakaras, Chairman of the Board of MT Group.
This joint Estonian-Finnish gas security project aims to strengthen energy security in the whole region and to stop buying gas from Russia. Once completed, the project will connect the LNG terminal in Paldiski, Estonia, with the national gas pipeline network. The Estonian LNG terminal is identical to the Klaipėda LNG terminal, where MT Group also carried out the same offshore pipeline construction works 8 years ago.
