Allseas has clinched a deal to deploy its giant offshore construction vessel Pieter Schelte to install deepwater sections of the South Stream pipeline from Russia to Bulgaria.

South Stream Transport has contracted the vessel to lay one of the deepwater sections of the pipeline, which comprises a total of four 931 km (581 miles) parallel lines across the Black Sea, at a maximum depth of 2,000 m (13,120 ft).

Allseas will be responsible for installing almost 900 km (562 miles) of offshore pipe using the Pieter Schelte.

Italy’s Saipem will provide complementary services for Allseas, which includes engineering, pipe storage management, and connection of the offshore lines to shallow water and landfall sections of pipe.

Allseas is due to start offshore construction with the Pieter Schelte next summer, and this second string is due to be commissioned by year-end 2016.

The vessel, which is under construction, will be 477 m (1,564 ft) in length and equipped with six welding and coating stations. It is already due to work on the decommissioning of Shell’s Brent field platforms in the U.K. sector of the North Sea.

In March, Saipem was contracted to lay the first deepwater section of the South Stream pipeline as well as shallow-water sections and construct landfall sections for all four South Stream lines.

Offshore sections of South Stream will extend from a compression station at Russkaya on the Russian coast, across the Black Sea to Varna in Bulgaria. The line is being developed with capacity to carry up to 63 Bcm (2,223 Bcf) of gas a year from Russia to Central and Southern Europe, diversifying European gas supplies and the line is due to reach capacity in 2018.

So far South Stream Transport has placed a number of contracts for the project but other are still to be awarded: A spokesman for the company said, “Tenders for pipe supply and construction contracts for the third and fourth offshore pipeline are still to be held.”

Offshore