The Zeepipe is a natural gas transportation system to transport

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

natural gas to the receiving terminal at

Zeebrugge Zeebrugge (; from , meaning "Bruges-on-Sea"; , ) is a village on the coast of Belgium and a subdivision of Bruges, for which it is the modern port. Zeebrugge serves as both the international port of Bruges-Zeebrugge and a seafront resort with ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. The total costs of Zeepipe system is around 24.2 billion NOK. It is owned by

Gassled Gassled is a partnership to own the offshore natural gas transportation infrastructure at the Norwegian continental shelf. Its pipelines are operated by Gassco. Gassled was created in 2002 and it became operational on 1 January 2003. Its origi ...

partners and operated by

Gassco Gassco is a Norwegian state owned company that operates of natural gas pipes and associated riser platforms and land-based facilities transporting annually of 100 billion cubic meter (bcm) of natural gas from the Norwegian continental shelf ...

. The technical service provider is

Statoil Equinor ASA (formerly Statoil and StatoilHydro) is a Norwegian multinational energy company headquartered in Stavanger, Norway. It is primarily a petroleum company operating in 36 countries with additional investments in renewable energy. In th ...

. The Zeebrugge receiving terminal is owned by

Fluxys Fluxys is a Belgium-based company, mainly acting as a natural gas transmission system operator. In 2004, it employed around 850 people and its infrastructure comprised about of pipelines and a terminal in Zeebrugge, Belgium. The company is list ...

(51%) and Gassled partners (49%).

Zeepipe I

The Zeepipe I pipeline was commissioned on 1 October 1993. The pipeline runs from

Sleipner field Sleipnir is an eight-legged horse in Norse mythology. Sleipnir or Sleipner may also refer to: Places * Sleipner Glacier, Greenland * Sleipnir Glacier, Antarctica Ships and offshore * Sleipner gas field ** Sleipner A, an offshore platform * , th ...

to Zeebrugge. The pipeline has a diameter of and its capacity is 15 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. At the time of construction, it was the longest and largest offshore pipeline in the world. It was more than twice as long as the next largest single-section offshore pipeline in the world. Originally, there was a plan to build an intermediate service platform to the pipeline to tie in future compression facilities and to enable the pipeline to be pigged in two sections. However, due to technological development it is possible to serve the pipeline as one

pigging In pipeline transportation, pigging is the practice of using pipeline inspection gauges or gadgets, devices generally referred to as pigs or scrapers, to perform various maintenance operations. This is done without stopping the flow of the pr ...

segment and the need for the service platform was eliminated. The second section of Zeepipe I consists of a pipeline from Draupner S to Sleipner. It links Zeepipe with Statpipe. The contract for pre-commissioning and commissioning of Zeepipe 1 was awarded to Halliburton Oilfield Services Inc. Halliburton awarded engineering and procurement sub-contracts to Brown and Root Engineering Ltd. The pipeline was laid by ''Semac 1'' and ''

Castoro Sei The ''Castoro Sei'' (Italian for ''Beaver Six'') was a column-stabilized semi-submersible pipelay vessel. She had an overall length of , a width of and an operating draught of . The ''Castoro Sei'' was equipped with 2 rotating gantry cran ...

'' pipe-laying ships.

Zeepipe IIA

Zeepipe II A, operational since 1996, is long pipeline from

Kollsnes Kollsnes is a Natural gas processing, natural gas processing plant operated by Gassco on the southern part of the island of Oøy in Øygarden Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. Equinor is the Technical Service Provider on behalf of Gassco. ...

gas processing plant in Norway to Sleipner Riser. The capacity of Zeepipe II A is 26.3 billion cubic meters per year.

Zeepipe IIB

Zeepipe II B, operational since 1 October 1997, runs from Kollsnes to Draupner E. The length of Zeepipe II B is and the capacity is about 25.9 billion cubic meters per year.

References

External links

{{Portal, Belgium, Norway, Energy
Zeepipe (Gassco website)
Energy infrastructure completed in 1993 North Sea energy Natural gas pipelines in Belgium Natural gas pipelines in Norway Zeebrugge Pipelines under the North Sea 1993 establishments in Belgium 1993 establishments in Norway