The Solitaire laybarge has completed its share of the pipelaying for Statoil's Europipe II gas trunkline in the North Sea.
And Castoro Sei, the other vessel currently involved in this project, is likely to finish laying pipe towards the end of the week.
"Completing Solitaire's part of the work is a milestone for us," says Europipe II project director Roar Jensen. "It means that the vessel has fulfilled its side of the revised contract and that we're sticking to the schedule set at the New Year."
Europipe II is due to start carrying contractual gas deliveries on 1 October from Statoil's Kårstø treatment plant north of Stavanger to a receiving station at Emden in Germany.
Solitaire has been responsible for laying the trunkline from the coast of Norway, across the deepwater Norwegian Trench and on to a point in the Danish North Sea. It laid 52 kilometres of Europipe II off Denmark last year.
Castoro Sei and the Semac I laybarge have installed the rest of the line, south from the Danish sector to the German coast.
Laying of Europipe II has been delayed because Solitaire got started later than planned. It also lost the line twice in the Danish North Sea last year.
To claw back the lost time, laying continued during the winter - a first for this type of pipeline.