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Early September 2011, our AHTS BOULDER sailed from IJmuiden to the Baltic in order to participate as fourth anchor handler in the Nord Stream project joining our AHTS BLIZZARD which is active for this prestigious project since March 2010. Together with two other anchor handlers, the four vessels are running the 12 anchors of 25 tons on a 24/7 basis.
The rotation of four vessels allows one vessel at the time to go into port for crew changes, supplies and bunkers without losing any valuable time for the lay barge to continue laying its pipe laying. The present speed of the pipe laying results in our vessels replacing each up to 26 anchors a day in a continuous operation. It is expected that the project will be completed early April 2012.
Nord Stream will be a 1,220 kilometers long natural gas pipeline stretching through the Baltic Sea, from Vyborg, Russia to Greifswald in Germany and will consist of two parallel lines. The first one, with a transmission capacity of around 27.5 billion cubic meters a year has been completed in 2011. The second line is due to be completed in 2012, doubling annual capacity to around 55 billion cubic meters. This is enough to supply more than 25 million households in Europe. In Russian territory, a 917 km long on shore connection is being built by Gazprom, to connect Nord Stream to the Russian gas transmission system.
