Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. (Boskalis) has been awarded a LoI (Letter of Intent) in joint venture with Van Oord for rock placement services for the Nord Stream 2 project. The award was made by the project developer Nord Stream 2 AG and is a part of the construction of the planned twin 1,200 kilometer gas pipelines running through the Baltic Sea, connecting Russia to Europe. The contract value is approximately EUR 250 million, with a 50% share for Boskalis. Contract details are expected to be finalized in the next few weeks.

Rock needs to be installed at specific locations along the pipeline route to level the seabed and to protect the pipelines. The contract scope includes the sourcing of rock from quarries in the Baltic region. The project will be executed in a 50/50 partnership and multiple specialized fallpipe vessels will be deployed in the period 2018-2019.

In the period 2010-2012 Boskalis was also contracted for the rock placement scope for the first Nord Stream project and also constructed the landfall in Germany.

Boskalis' strategy is aimed at benefitting from key macro-economic factors which drive worldwide demand in our markets: expansion of the global economy, increase in energy consumption, global population growth and the challenges that go hand in hand with climate change. This development emphasizes the need for infrastructure to accommodate the continued demand for natural gas.

About Nord Stream 2

Nord Stream 2 is a planned pipeline through the Baltic Sea, which will transport natural gas over 1,200 km from the world’s largest gas reserves in Russia via the most efficient route to consumers in Europe. Nord Stream 2 will largely follow the route and design of the successful Nord Stream pipeline. With Europe’s domestic gas production projected to halve in the next 20 years, Nord Stream 2’s twin pipeline system will help Europe to meet its future gas import needs, with the capacity to transport 55 billion cubic metres of gas per year, enough to supply 26 million European households. This secure supply of natural gas with its low CO2 emissions will also contribute to Europe’s objective to have a more climate-friendly energy mix with gas substituting for coal in power generation and providing back-up for intermittent renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar power.

About Royal Boskalis

Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. is a leading global services provider operating in the dredging, maritime infrastructure and maritime services sectors. The company provides creative and innovative all-round solutions to infrastructural challenges in the maritime, coastal and delta regions of the world with services including the construction and maintenance of ports and waterways, land reclamation, coastal defense and riverbank protection. In addition, Boskalis offers a wide variety of marine services and contracting for the oil and gas sector and offshore wind industry as well as salvage solutions (SMIT Salvage). Furthermore, Boskalis has a number of strategic partnerships in harbor towage and terminal services (KOTUG SMIT Towage, Keppel Smit Towage, Saam Smit Towage and Smit Lamnalco). With a versatile fleet of more than 900 vessels and floating equipment and 11,700 employees, including associated companies, Boskalis operates in 90 countries across six continents.