Applying for a construction licence and notifications

Construction of natural gas pipework and filling stations as well as natural gas storage requires a construction licence issued by Tukes. Tukes's permission is not required for smaller sites.

Apply for a licence from Tukes well in advance of beginning construction. The target processing time for natural gas pipeline and filling station licences and notifications submitted to Tukes is 80 days.

The target processing time for natural gas storage licences is 8 months, when the storage amount is 5 tons or more. The aim of the target procedure is to ensure safe placement, construction and equipment of natural gas pipelines and equipment, their conformity and acknowledgement of the surrounding area, traffic, residents and other operations.

Companies must apply for a construction licence from Tukes for the following:

• construction of natural gas transmission pipelines
• construction of natural gas distribution pipelines
• construction of natural gas operational pipelines, if the total nominal fuel power of operational equipment is 1.2 MW or more
• construction of natural gas operational pipeline when the total nominal fuel power of operational equipment is less than 1.2MW and the greatest allowed working pressure of the operational pipeline is more than 0.5 bar and the diameter nominal of the pipeline is more than DN 25
• construction of natural gas filling station
• natural gas storage when the stored amount is 5 tons or more.

A construction licence granted by Tukes is not required for the construction of a service line.  A service line is a distribution pipeline section between the main pipeline of distribution pipework and a site with no more than 70kW of power.

Tukes may grant a company a regional construction licence. Regional construction licence

• applies to distribution and operational pipelines, the largest permitted working pressure of which is 8 bars
• applies to certain geographical areas
• allows the construction of distribution and operational pipework, excluding separate large usage sites, at least 6MW
• requires that the company has an operational system for natural gas.

Companies must notify Tukes in the case of

• natural gas storage when the amount of stored natural gas is over 0.2 tons and under 5 tons
• appointment of an operations supervisor and deputy of natural gas use
• change of company or company name  
• changes in a natural gas pipeline, filling station or storage
• serious incident or accident related to natural gas pipelines or equipment
• termination of operations or removal from use of natural gas pipelines.