CONSTRUCTION ADVANCES ON GAS PIPELINE IN GERMANY

Construction is well under way on a pipeline to transport gas from the North Sea and Russia into the heart of Germany. Mitte Deutschland Anbindungs Leitung (Midal) gas pipeline, under construction for Wintershall AG and partner Gazprom, the Russian state gas company, will extend more than 640 km from the North Sea coast to Ludwigshafen in Southwest Germany. En route, the line will make more than 100 river crossings.

Sept. 28, 1992

2 min read

Construction is well under way on a pipeline to transport gas from the North Sea and Russia into the heart of Germany.

Mitte Deutschland Anbindungs Leitung (Midal) gas pipeline, under construction for Wintershall AG and partner Gazprom, the Russian state gas company, will extend more than 640 km from the North Sea coast to Ludwigshafen in Southwest Germany. En route, the line will make more than 100 river crossings.

Midal will connect with the joint ventures' Sachsen-Thuringen-Erdgas Leitung (Stegal) pipeline, which moves Russian gas into eastern Germany (OGJ, Sept. 14, p. 29) and Wintershall's gas storage site at Rehden.

Wintershall Erdgas Handelshaus GmbH, set up to manage the joint venture project, divided the pipeline route into six parts, hiring different contractors to lay each section.

The line is 36 in. diameter from Rysum on the North Sea coast, where Wintershall's share of gas from Markham field off Netherlands will enter the network, to the Rehden storage site. It is 40 in. pipe from Rehden to Reckrod, where Midal will connect with the Stegal line.

The rest of the route, from Reckrod to the BASF AG manufacturing plant at Ludwigshafen, will be 32 in. pipe.

Midal will start up without compressor stations, with gas going to communities along its route. The first of three planned compressors will go into operation late next year. When all three are in place, by 1999, capacity will be 7.1 billion cu m/year.

Compressors will be added as the customer base grows until the planned 12.9 billion cu m/year capacity is reached in 2010. Operating pressure will be 84 bar.

Total investment in the Midal pipeline will be 2.7 billion deutschemarks ($1.9 billion), of which 1.6 billion deutschemarks ($1.1 billion) will be for the pipeline and three compressor stations, 190 million deutschemarks ($140 million) will be for further compressors, and 910 million deutschemarks ($650 million) will be for spur lines.

The Rehden site will use an idle Wintershall gas field.

On start-up in July 1993, the working gas volume will be 1.5 billion cu m. This will be expanded by drilling of further wells from 1994 to 1996, to yield 3 billion cu m of capacity. Total investment at Rehden will be 377 million deutschemarks ($270 million).