Norwegian pipeline operator Gassco has awarded two contracts worth a combined 50 million kroner ($10 million) to Norway-based IKM Gruppen to begin designing a trunkline and step-out developments for a new gas pipeline from the Norway to Sweden and onward to Denmark and perhaps Poland.

The 10-billion-kroner ($2 billion), 853-kilometre pipeline could have part of its content removed for refining processes in southern Norway.

Gas deliveries in December 2012 are the hoped-for result.

“The Skanled project is complex, and challenges remain to be overcome before it can be given a green light,” says Gassco vice president Thor O Lohne. Technical choices and project economics aside, approvals need to come from Sweden and Denmark, although Swedish business has been clear its supports the venture. Polish interests have also sought a stake.

Industry observers have suggested Gazprom’s Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic has been held up by political forces in Baltic-region countries anxious to improve the value of Norwegian gas in Skanled, also known as Estled.

Meanwhile, IKM Ocean Design AS in Stavanger and Trondheim will tackle subsea designs in Phase 1 and may detail engineer the pipeline.

Gassco called the IKM contracts “a milestone” for a project idea which has aired periodically over half a decade.

ws@scandoil.com

Tags: Gassco