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Wingas finishes OPAL

The Russian-German Wingas company has completed the construction of OPAL, one of the transmission pipelines of the Nord Stream project in Germany. The official with Wingas said that the company has built the transmission pipeline in a record period of time meeting all necessary environmental and technological requirements. The 470-km long OPAL pipeline will connect the offshore Nord Stream pipeline grids. 

OPAL runs from Germany’s Greifswald via Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Saxony to the German-Czech border.  In an exclusive interview with the Voice of Russia the spokesman with Wingas Nico Neu told about the amount of investments and the capacity of OPAL. 

"Wingas and E.On Ruhrgas invested all together quite around 1 bln euro to build up this pipeline. And Wingas has a part of eight per cent on the investment and E.On Ruhrgas 20 per cent. The real construction need only 22 months, it’s a kind of record. We finished now, we started in September 2009 and finished now, and now we are ready to wait for the russian gas. The Nord Stream pipelines will be able to transport 55 bln cubic meters natural gas per year from Russia to Europe."

Wingas, which holds the main stake in the OPAL project is a joint venture set up by Russia’s Gazprom and Germany’s Wintershall. Wingas is one of the largest suppliers of natural gas in Germany and also exports gas to Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Great Britain, France and the Netherlands.

While the gas consumption in Europe is growing its domestic production is decreasing and Wingas officials are developing new routes to supply the Russian gas to Europe. It should be noted that the announced capacity of OPAL gas pipeline is 36 billion cubic meters, which is only 1/3 of the annual gas consumption in Germany.

The General Director of the National Energy Security Fund Konstantin Simonov also sees other advantages of OPAL namely - reliable gas transit and direct access for Gazprom to the European market.

"Nord Stream will enable us to substitute Ukraine as a transit state, because the gas going through OPAL will be connected with Polish networks.  Thanks to OPAL we will be able to supply gas to Poland bypassing Ukraine. It will be also possible to supply gas to Northern central Europe, where the number of customers is quite big."

At present Wingas is also building NEL - the second transmission pipeline of the Nord Stream project which is to connect the offshore pipeline with continental Europe. Its annual transmission capacity will be 20 billion cubic meters. As for the Nord Stream its first line is expected to be launched this autumn. 

By Roman Mamonov

The Voice of Russia, 14 Jule, 2011


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