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Jul 13, 2011
OPAL natural gas pipeline complete
WINGAS Group completes construction work on the Nord Stream connecting pipeline / Pipeline to be commissioned in the fall following test phase
Berlin/Kassel. Let the natural gas flow: after 22 months of construction, the largest natural gas pipeline in Western Europe, OPAL (Ostsee-Pipeline-Anbindungs-Leitung - Baltic Sea Pipeline Link) has now been completed. Together with Henning Heidemanns, State Secretary at the Brandenburg Ministry for Economics and European Affairs, the WINGAS Chairman Dr. Gerhard König and Henning R. Deters, Member of the Board of Management of E.ON Ruhrgas, gave the starting signal for the last of approximately 50,000 welding seams of the over 470-km-long Nord Stream connecting pipeline on the grounds of the OPAL compressor station in Baruth/Mark, south of Berlin. "Thanks to the support of all those involved we have managed to complete OPAL according to schedule. Now we are ready to transport the natural gas from the reserves in Siberia to the consumers in Germany and in neighboring European countries," Gerhard König explained. The OPAL pipeline was Germany's longest construction site in the last few months. Up to 2,500 staff laid over 26,000 pipe segments about 18 meters long and 15 tons in weight between the Baltic Sea coast and the Ore Mountains from September 2009. Following a test phase the pipeline will be commissioned in the fall together with the Nord Stream Baltic Sea pipeline. Overall, WINGAS and E.ON Ruhrgas have invested over a billion euros in the energy infrastructure project.
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