By eliminating the high-risk gas pipeline defects, repairs in the gas pipeline Vireši-Tallinn near Valmiera have been completed faster than planned

The unified natural gas and transmission operator JSC “Conexus Baltic Grid” (Conexus) has completed the repair works in the gas pipeline Vireši-Tallinn near Valmiera, which were necessary to prevent the identified high-risk gas pipeline defects and to ensure the security of the gas transmission system at this stage of transmission. At the same time, the repairs allow increasing the working pressure in the pipeline and to increase the supply volumes of natural gas to Finland and Estonia in the future.

Repairs were planned until May 31, but they have been completed faster than planned, maintaining the high safety standards. The repairs in the gas pipeline Vireši-Tallinn were carried out within the framework of the Latvian-Lithuanian interconnection improvement (LLII) project, which is an important element in complementing the European Union's internal energy market and improving the functioning of the international transmission system. The repair works carried out in Vireši-Tallinn pipeline is one of the 17 sub-projects carried out under the LLII project, and 450 thousand euro have been invested in its implementation.

The total costs of LLII project is set at €9.77 million, of which the project costs of Conexus is set at €5.50 million, and €4.27 million for the Lithuanian natural gas transmission system operator "Amber Grid", while the co-financing of the Connecting Europe Facility is set at 50% of the total cost of the project.

Zane Kotāne, Chairperson of Board of JSC "Conexus Baltic Grid" informs: “Repair works in gas pipeline near Valmiera were vital to ensure the safety at this span of transmission by eliminating the possible emergency situations and gas disruptions to Valmiera. Secondly, with the implementation of these repairs, we have taken an important step to be able to ensure sufficient capacity for natural gas flows throughout the Baltic natural gas system, to meet the growing demand of the regional gas market and to guarantee the security of gas supply on the interconnections. At the same time, it will allow to use Inčukalans Underground Gas Storage at the most capacity to supply natural gas to Estonia and Finland thus demonstrating the role and necessity of the Storage in the international gas transmission system. I would like to thank the system's users by temporarily adapting their gas supplies and using alternative supply routes. As repairs were completed faster than initially planned, the system users will be able to restore their operations more quickly in the normal order."

It is planned that 2 more projects will be implemented in the gas pipeline Vireši-Tallinn, during which two natural gas valves will be replaced and connection of the gas pipeline to the gas pipelines Pskov-Riga and Izborsk - Inčukalns Underground Gas Storage. It is planned that these repairs will be carried out in the autumn of this year.