Nord Stream 2 Awards Steel Pipe Contracts to Three Firms
The consortium of companies planning to build the Nord Stream 2 subsea pipeline to bring Russian gas to Europe from 2019 said on Friday it has awarded steel pipe delivery contracts for 2,500 kilometers to three firms, completing a tender.
The steel pipes with a total weight of 2.2 million tonnes will be supplied by Europipe GmbH, a consortium which includes Salzgitter, with 40 percent of the contract and Russian companies OMK (33 percent) and Chelpipe (27 percent).
Contracts are still being negotiated and are due to be signed within the next few weeks, the Zug-Based consortium said in a statement.
The construction is supposed to start in 2018 and first shipments of the pipes are earmarked for September 2016
Nord Stream 2 should double the amount of gas directly shipped from Russia to Germany, cutting out traditional transit route Ukraine.
(Reporting by Vera Eckert)
