News
Apr 29, 2010
Pipeline Info Point opens in Lubmin
Information stand on the pipeline projects Nord Stream, OPAL and NEL for citizens and interested tourists
Lubmin. Nord Stream AG and the WINGAS Group today opened the “Pipeline Info Point” at the port in Lubmin, providing the public with first-hand information on pipeline projects. “From now on, every day citizens and visitors to the popular holiday region can inform themselves on what is currently Europe largest energy project,” Jens Lange, Project Manager at Nord Stream AG, explained. The Info Point illustrates the dimensions of the new natural gas pipeline and the two connecting pipelines in Germany, OPAL und NEL, and is located near the future landing point of the Nord Stream pipeline. As Jens Lange said, “The exhibition contains comprehensive information on these pipeline projects, which will turn Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Germany into new energy hubs in Europe.” The exhibition includes samples of the pipeline segments used to put together the Nord Stream pipeline and OPAL pipelines, approx. 1.2 and 1.4 meters in diameter respectively and weighing many tons. When the pipelines are finished, 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia will flow from Lubmin to the consumers in western Europe.
“The Nord Stream pipeline and OPAL provide direct access to the world’s largest natural gas reserves,” Bernd Vogel, Managing Director of OPAL NEL TRANSPORT GmbH underlined at the official opening of the pipeline Info Point attended by political, business and tourism industry representatives. The company is part of the WINGAS Group and will take over the technical network operations of OPAL. “The pipelines not only secure Germany’s energy supply, but Europe’s as well.” The connecting pipeline OPAL will transport large quantities of the Russian natural gas towards the south as far as the Czech Republic. While construction work for the 1220-km-long Nord Stream pipeline began at the start of April, work on the connecting German pipeline OPAL in the East of Germany is already in full swing: “Since construction work began in September, the topsoil has been removed from over 280 kilometers of the pipeline track, around 110 kilometers of piping have been welded and more than 60 kilometers of pipeline have already been laid“, Vogel reports. Around 1600 workers are currently carrying out this work in East Germany. By the time of commissioning in 2011 it will the capacity to transport 36 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
A further connecting pipeline is planned in addition to OPAL in order to transport the natural gas arriving through Nord Stream pipeline: the NEL (Norddeutsche Erdgasleitung - North German gas link) will run from the Baltic Sea coast near Lubmin, past Schwerin and Hamburg, to the Rehden natural gas storage facility in Lower Saxony. The NEL is designed for a capacity of 20 billion cubic meters.
Nord Stream AG is an international joint venture established for the planning, construction and subsequent operation of the new offshore gas pipeline across the Baltic Sea. Russian OAO Gazprom holds a 51 percent stake in the joint venture. The German companies BASF/Wintershall GmbH and E.ON Ruhrgas AG hold 20 percent each, and the Dutch company N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie has a 9 percent stake.
More information at www.nord-stream.com
European energy provider WINGAS GmbH & Co. KG is active in natural gas trading and distribution in Germany, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Austria, the Czech Republic and Denmark. Its customers include municipal utilities, regional gas suppliers, industrial firms and power plants. Since 1990 WINGAS has invested more than 3 billion Euros in the development of a natural gas transport and storage infrastructure. WINGAS TRANSPORT pipeline network, which is over 2,000 kilometers long, connects the major gas reserves in Siberia and in the North Sea to the growing markets in Western Europe. In Rehden in North Germany, WINGAS has the largest natural gas storage facility in Western Europe – with a working gas volume of over four billion cubic meters, and the company also participates in Central Europe's second largest storage facility in Haidach, Austria. Additional natural gas storage facilities are currently being built in Great Britain and Germany in order to secure the supply of natural gas in Europe.
OPAL NEL TRANSPORT GmbH will perform the tasks of network operator for the OPAL and the NEL. It is part of the WINGAS Group, which, in addition to natural gas supplier WINGAS, includes WINGAS TRANSPORT. WINGAS TRANSPORT operates a gas pipeline network which is more than 2,000 km long and covers the whole of Germany. It is planned that the two new pipelines of OPAL NEL TRANSPORT will be connected to the WINGAS TRANSPORT gas pipeline network.
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