Pipe contracts for first line of South Stream to be signed Jan 29
MOSCOW. Jan 27 (Interfax) - South Stream Transport B.V., the consortium carrying out the project to build the South Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Europe, plans to sign contracts on January 29 for the delivery of about 75,000 pipes with diameter of 813 mm and wall thickness of 39 mm, Gazprom said.
Soon after, the company plans to place an order for pipes for the second line of the offshore gas pipeline.
South Stream's board of directors approved the signing of contracts for the delivery of pipes for the first of four lines of the offshore 931-km pipeline at a meeting in Amsterdam on Friday. It also issued a mandate to complete negotiations on carrying out the work to lay the pipeline.
"The board of directors noted that negotiations with potential contractors are moving forward quickly and contracts to carry out construction work on the offshore gas pipeline should be signed by the end of March 2014," Gazprom said.
The company is not naming the pipe suppliers until the contracts are signed. It was reported earlier that United Metallurgical Company (OMK), Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant (ChelPipe) and Izhora Pipe Plant (ITZ) made the qualifying round and were invited to bid in a tender to supply pipes for the offshore section of the pipeline.
There are very few contractors in the world for laying offshore gas pipelines. Most of Gazprom's offshore gas pipelines have been built by Italy's Saipem. For the Nord Stream pipeline, it hired rival Allseas as a subcontractor for part of the work. The majority shareholder in Saipem is oil and gas company Eni, the largest foreign shareholder in South Stream.
