Repairs on the Balticconnector gas pipeline have been completed. Gas started flowing through the pipeline again between Estonia and Finland on Monday morning.
The damage site was located at a depth of 60 metres on the seabed. The repair work was done with remote-controlled equipment rather than by divers.
“Normally, a repair job of this scale would take one to two years. The Balticconnector was repaired in seven months,” marine pipeline maintenance manager Tiit Toomits said in a press release issued by the Estonian grid company Elering.
Yle has learned that the repairs cost almost 40 million euros.
“We’re negotiating with the insurance company about compensation for the damage. No decision has been made yet,” Elering communications manager Ain Köster told Yle.
Chinese ship arrived in St Petersburg without anchor
Elering and the Finnish transmission network company Gasgrid closed the Balticconnector in the early hours of 8 October due to a sudden drop in pressure. On the same day, a fault was also detected in a data cable between Finland and Estonia.
Since the damage point of the gas pipeline was located in Finland's economic zone, the investigation was first launched in Finland in partnership with Estonian officials.
Official investigations first revealed a hole in the pipeline. Over the next couple of weeks, tens of kilometres of drag marks were found along the seabed. On October 24, Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Border Guard announced that an anchor had been found adjacent to the damaged area.
The Chinese ship, Newnew Polar Bear, passed over the Balticconnector at the exact time of the accident. Later, the ship was spotted in St. Petersburg without its second anchor. Therefore, based on the technical investigation, the NBI suspects that the Chinese ship broke the gas pipeline.
At a press conference in late October, investigation director Risto Lohi said that the ship was contacted several times, but that its crew was unwilling to cooperate.
Since then, the Finnish authorities have focused on cooperating with the Chinese authorities and pursuing the management of the shipping company that owns the Chinese ship.
