First Batch of Pipes for Nord Stream 2 Gas Project Arrives at Port in Finland

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Koverhar will be one of the four logistics hubs for the Nord Stream 2 project, storing about 30 percent of the project's total 204,000 pipes.

"The first concrete weight coated (CWC) pipes for the planned 1,200 kilometers (746 miles) Nord Stream 2 twin pipelines arrived today by rail at the Port of Koverhar in Hanko, Finland," Nord Stream 2 AG said in a statement.

Additionally, about 124 miles of CWC pipes will be delivered by rail to Koverhar between mid-July and the third quarter of 2017 and will be stored in the port until the construction is launched in 2018, the company said, adding that the pipes are produced by Russia's Chelyabinsk Pipe-Rolling Plant (ChelPipe).

In late June, Nord Stream 2 AG's Chief Technical Officer Sergey Serdyukov said the pipemakers had already produced half of the needed pipes. In March 2016, the company said that 40 percent of the pipes would be supplied by Germany's Europipe, 33 percent by United Metallurgical Company (OMK), and 27 percent by ChelPipe.

The Nord Stream 2 project presumes the construction of two gas pipelines with a combined annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas. The new pipeline is planned to be laid along the existing Nord Stream pipeline route from the Russian coast through the Baltic Sea, on to a hub in Germany.