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First consignment of coated pipes for North Stream 2 delivered to Finland

MOSCOW, July 17. /TASS/. The first concrete weight coated (CWC) pipes for the planned 1,200 kilometer Nord Stream 2 twin pipelines arrived by rail at the Port of Koverhar in Hanko (Finland) on Monday, Nord Stream 2 AG, the operator of the project on construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to transport natural gas to the European Union, said in a press release.

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"Approximately 200 kilometers of CWC pipes will be transported by train to Koverhar between mid-July and the third quarter of 2017, to be stored in the port until the start of construction in 2018," the report said.

The consignments of CWC pipes produced by Russia’s ChelPipe are delivered on trains with 63 wagons each carrying three of the 12-meter, 24-tonne pipes. The main CWC pipes will be delivered to the Port of Koverhar by sea on vessels from the coating plant in Kotka operated by Nord Stream 2's logistics partner Wasco. The deliveries will start in the third quarter of this year, the company said. The Port of Koverhar in Hanko will serve as one of the four logistics hubs to be used for the Nord Stream 2 project. Altogether 30% of the 204,000 pipes needed to construct the pipelines will be stored at Koverhar before being transported to the pipe-lay vessels during construction.

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is expected to come into service at the end of 2019. The pipeline is set to run from the Russian coast along the Baltic Sea bed to the German shore. Each of the pipeline’s two stretches will have a capacity of 27.5 bln cubic meters. The new pipeline will double the capacity of the first stretch and will basically follow its route.

In April, Gazprom, Engie, OMV, Royal Dutch Shell, Uniper and Wintershall signed agreements on new funding model for the Nord Stream 2 project. Gazprom will remain the only shareholder of Nord Stream 2 AG company, while the five European companies will provide long-term financing in the amount of 50% of the total project cost, currently estimated at 9.5 bln euro. The contribution of each company will amount to around 950 mln euro.

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