One of the biggest pipe-laying vessels in the world has started its journey to build the Polarled, a 480 kilometre long pipeline that will transport gas from Aasta Hansteen to the Norwegian west coast.
The pipeline will be the deepest pipeline in its order of magnitude. With a diameter of 90 centimetres, Polarled will be laid on a maximum water depth of 1265 meters. The pipeline is designed to transport up to 70 million cubic metres of gas per day. Until August of this year, the pipeline will be laid, then the first gas is set to flow to Nyhamna facility in 2017.
Aasta Hansteen
Aasta Hansteen is one of the largest and most complex industrial projects in the whole of Europe and has enormous potential natural resources. However, there is virtually no infrastructure available in this part of the Norwegian Sea in order to transport the gas to the mainland. The construction of the infrastructure is of major strategic importance for the future development of the region.
The project planning is also far-sighted: to allow the infrastructure to be expanded any time, by now gadgets are applied to connect other fields to the pipeline easily at a later time.
Picture: A map of the large-scale project Aasta Hansteen and the Polarled pipeline.
