Ruhrgas AG, Essen, has started up the first large diameter gas pipeline linking the gas grids of former East and West Germany.
Ruhrgas last month placed in service a 40 in., 70 km line at Vitzeroda, near Eisenach, linking a new Ruhrgas pipeline in Hesse state with a 330 km gas pipeline built last year in Thuringia and Saxony states by Erdgasversorgungs GmbH (EVG), Leipzig.
The new link enables pipeline operator EVG to receive 70 bcf/year of western European gas via Ruhrgas, complementing the 35 bcf/year of gas coming from the Commonwealth of Independent States via Verbundnetz Gas AG (VNG), Leipzig.
The 1.7 billion deutschemark ($1.1 billion) project also will help complete conversion of Thuringia and Saxony from town gas to natural gas. Of gas consumers in Thuringia and Saxony, 85% currently use natural gas vs. town gas. All will have changed over by mid-1993.
PROJECT DETAILS
EVG, a 50-50 partnership of Ruhrgas and VNG, operates a 330 km natural gas pipeline from Vizeroda to Zwickau, with a spur to Saalfeld.
The new link brings gas into Vitzeroda, on the old East German border. It connects at Lauterbach with Ruhrgas' 270 km pipeline from Werne, North Rhine-Westphalia, to Schluchtern, Hesse, which carries German gas as well as supplies from Norway and Netherlands.
The new 40 in. link and the 48 in. Werne-Schluchtern pipeline operate at 1,218 psi. EVG's Vitzeroda-Zwickau line also operates at 1,218 psi but drops in diameter from 40 in. to 32 in. and then to 24 in. as it progresses east.
Capital investment for the Werne-Schluchtern-Vitzeroda pipeline totaled more than 1 billion deutschemarks ($700 million). EVG's Vitzeroda-Zwickau outlay was 600 million deutschemarks ($420 million).
Copyright 1992 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
