Nord Stream 2, a consortium set to build the second Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic between Russia and the EU, completed its international tender process for the concrete weight coating and storing of pipes for the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

According to a statement issued on Friday, July 8, the supplier chosen is the Dutch Wasco Coatings Europe BV. The contract with the chosen company is subject to final negotiations and will be signed in the coming weeks.

Under the yet to be signed deal, Wasco will provide storage and concrete weight coating for approximately 2,400 km of pipes.

Pipe deliveries to concrete weight coating facilities are planned to start in September 2016, with the concrete weight coating process starting at the beginning of 2017.

The Nord Stream 2 shareholders’ agreement signatories are PJSC Gazprom, the German companies E.ON SE and BASF SE/Wintershall Holding GmbH, the Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell plc, the Austrian OMV AG and the French ENGIE S.A.

The pipeline involves two parallel 48 inch lines, roughly 1,200 km, each starting from south-west of St Petersburg and ending at German coast, Greifswald.

According to the consortium, the project builds on the experience of the first Nord Stream, which opened twin pipelines through the Baltic Sea in 2011 and 2012.

Similar to its predecessor project, Nord Stream 2’s natural gas pipelines through the Baltic Sea will have the capacity to transport 55 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Russian gas a year to the EU, for at least 50 years. The new lines will stretch for some 1,200 kilometers across the Baltic Sea.