Repairing gas pipeline to take at least 5 months

The repairing works of the Baltic Connector gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia, which was damaged on October 8 will take at least five months, said the state-owned company and transmission system operator, Gasgrid Finland in a press release on Friday based on preliminary expert assessments.

It can be assumed that the planning of the repair work, the mobilization of the necessary underwater equipment and the actual repair measures, including the inspection of the repaired pipe section and commissioning twill last at least five months.

Therefore, the earliest possible commissioning date of the Balticconnector -pipeline would be at the beginning of April 2024.

Meanwhile, inspections of the Baltic Connector gas pipeline been delayed due to challenging conditions at the sea,

The inspection operation has been underway this week. Due to the challenging conditions at sea, the inspections will continue next week as well and are expected to be completed by the end of next week.

At the moment, gas transmission between Finland and Estonia has halted. The state of the Finnish gas system is stable, and the supply of gas is secured via Inkoo LNG floating terminal.

The natural gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was temporarily closed on Sunday afternoon following a suspected leak on October 8.

On October 10, the authority said that the damage to the Baltic Connector gas pipeline and a data cable between Finland and Estonia was likely caused by an external actor, not caused by the normal gas transmission process.

Finland and Estonia are jointly investigating into the damage to the Baltic Connector gas pipeline and a data cable between the two countries.