The contractor, Dutch Smit Maritime Contractors BV, completed work on the afternoon of Nov. 11, on the 120 ton manifold system which is submerged under 22 meters of water approximately 7.5 kilometers off the Lithuanian coast.
Connected to an underwater pipeline leading to Butinge, the manifold allows crude oil and petroleum products to flow to a surface buoy, where they will be loaded onto tankers.
Smit had committed itself to finish the work on the offshore part until Nov. 22 for 8.8 million Dutch guilder ($4.7 million).
Ivan Doloshicki, general manager of Butinges Nafta, said the work that Smit has done at Butinge was beyond his expectations.
"The company has worked with exceptional professionalism and maintained the highest level of safety and environmental standards," spokesman for Williams Lithuania, Darius Silas, quoted Doloshicki as saying.
The terminal, currently under construction, will be completed by the end of 1999, though partial exports of crude oil are planned for as early as this winter.
In order to start exporting oil, a pipeline must be completed in Mazeikiai. Doloshicki forecasts the construction to be finished sometime around Jan. 18, 1999.
"The oil export will start in about a week, as soon as the pipes are filled with oil and coordination is completed," Butinge Terminal chief told BNS.
The total value of the terminal construction comes to about $267 to $300 million.
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