TMK starts shipping pipe to Turkmengaz for major deposit
ROSTOV-ON-DON. Feb 29 (Interfax) - OJSC TMK , one of the world's top-three oil and gas industry pipe producers, shipped a first consignment of pipe to Turkmenistan for use at the Southern Iolotan gas field this month, the company press service told Interfax.
"The contract with Turkmengaz involves the delivery in 2012 of several dozen thousand tonnes of pipe. This is really a big contract, but I cannot name the amount. Product shipment from the Volga Pipe Plant will be done in parts, according to the approved schedule," a press service spokesman said.
TMK has already forwarded 12,000 tonnes of pipe, the press service said.
To fulfill the order, Volga Pipe Plant opened production of straight-seamed large-diameter pipe with special characteristics - stricter geometric parameters and specified joint bevels with a higher level of anticorrosive coating.
"TMK did not put money into opening such production at Volga Pipe Plant, and no special equipment was purchased. What is involved is more widespread application of the technology possessed and increased control over production," the press service representative said.
Volga Pipe Plant makes pipe for the oil and gas industry, including large-diameter pipe.
TMK is Russia's largest pipe producer, and has 24 enterprises in Russia, the United States, Romania and Kazakhstan, as well as two R&D centers in Russia and the U.S.
The Southern Iolotan gas field, which was opened in 2006, is the biggest in Turkmenistan and the world's second largest after the Iranian-Qatari Pars dome. It contains around 21 trillion cubic meters of natural gas and is being worked by state company Turkmengaz and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).
