UK’s Penspen Appointed Engineer For Nabucco Pipeline Project
UK-based Penspen Group has been appointed owner’s engineer by Nabucco Gas Pipeline International, the five-member consortium that plans to build a 3,300km gas pipeline from Turkey to Central Europe. Paul Trundle, a Penspen director responsible for the Nabucco contract, told MEES that Penspen would be managing the front-end engineering design (FEED) and “optimization of the pipeline system.” Mr Trundle said that as owner’s engineer, Penspen would manage the project and control production of the FEED contracts. Nabucco would appoint contractors for five soon-to-be-issued FEED tenders and Penspen would write the invitation to tender documents, do the evaluation of the tenders and recommend appointments of contractors. When the contractors are appointed, Penspen is to manage them on a day-to-day basis to ensure work meets the project’s scope and remains on schedule, Mr Trundle said. Penspen will be working on the project’s initial design, he added. “For instance, [the project calls for] a 56in diameter pipeline with a 100 bar pressure. We will be looking to see if that is the optimum design or whether we should go for higher pressure and a smaller diameter.” He said Penspen would also “be looking for the optimization of these, and considering how often to place compressor stations and whether gas turbine driven compressors or electric driven compressors would be used. We have to do several studies on various aspects of the project.”
Tenders have been prepared by Nabucco for pipeline construction in each of the member countries – Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. Mr Trundle said he expected the tenders to be launched by the end of February, because the total duration for that phase of the project is only 14 months, meaning that contractors need to be “on board and starting work by the end of the first quarter of this year or beginning of the second quarter so that they will have time to do what they need to do.”
The €5bn Nabucco gas pipeline project is supported by the EU and designed to carry 31 bcm/year of natural gas from the Caspian Sea region and Middle East into Central Europe (MEES, 24 December 2007). Azerbaijan is expected to be a key supplier for the project and other suppliers may include Iran, Egypt and Iraq. Partners in Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH, each with a 20% share, are Austria’s OMV (project leader), Hungary’s MOL, Romania’s Transgaz, Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz Holding, and Turkey’s Botas. A sixth partner – widely expected to be Germany’s RWE – is to be announced this month.
Copyright MEES 2008.
