Baltic Sea Second Offshore Pipeline Completed by Nord Stream

Nord Stream has successfully completed the second of the two underwater tie-ins of its second gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea

The pipeline’s three sections were successfully welded together underwater and will be joined to Russian and German landfalls in August.

The underwater welding operations were remotely controlled from the world’s largest dive support vessel, the 160 metre long Skandi Arctic. Highly specialized divers oversaw the complex operations. 


Nord Stream has successfully completed the second of the two underwater tie-ins of its second gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea.

The 1,224-kilometre offshore pipeline is now complete and will be de-watered and dried before being joined to the onshore landfall sections in Russia and Germany in August. This second line is on schedule to become operational as part of the twin pipeline system in the last quarter of this year. 


The three sections were joined together underwater inside a hyperbaric welding habitat on the seabed at two locations, off the coast of Finland and off the Swedish island of Gotland in June.

Nord Stream’s twin pipelines were constructed in three sections with reducing pipe-wall thicknesses as the design pressure of the gas drops from 220 bar to 200 and from 200 bar to 177.5, arriving at the European mainland in Germany at 100 bar.

“This complex operation was successfully completed a few days ahead of schedule thanks to the excellent international collaboration that has characterized the whole project,” says Nicolas Rivet, Project Coordinator for the hyperbaric tie-in operations at Nord Stream. “As with Line 1, our diving contractor Technip completed this challenging task outstandingly well, using equipment from the Pipeline Repair System (PRS) Pool operated by Norway’s oil and gas company Statoil.”