OREANDA-NEWS. Vyksa Steel Works (VSW, Nizhni Novgorod Region), part of United Metallurgical Company (OMK), has launched the production of 1,420-mm pipes with 32-mm wall thickness with external three-layer polyethylene coating and internal friction-reducing coating for the construction of the North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP).

According to the press service of OMK, before late 2006, VSW will manufacture its first industrial batch of 5 thousand tonnes of such pipes, from the metal supplied by Dillinger Hutte, Germany.

Up to the present, the wall thickness of 1,420-mm pipes supplied by OMK to Gazprom for the construction of NEGP has been 21,6 mm and 25,88 mm. Orders for supply of pipes with various wall thicknesses depend on the environment where specific gas pipeline sections are going to be operated.

For the installation of NEGP, the Works will continue, from 2007, the production of 1,420-mm pipes with 21,6-mm, 25,88-mm, and 32-mm wall thicknesses.

Since late 2005, VSW has manufactured for NEGP more than 225 thousand tonnes of pipes with corrosion resistant coating designed for the pressure of 100 atmospheres.

VSW is Russia's first company to have mastered, in April 2006, the production of 1,420-mm single-seam longitudinal pipes rated for the pressures of up to 250 atmospheres. Given the Russian oil and gas companies need more and more insulated pipes for the construction of main pipelines and the development of new deposits, OMK decided to increase in 2007 VSW's capacity for the production and corrosion resistant coating of large-diameter pipes. For this purpose, it is planned to install the second SMS Meer-made stepwise molding press at the 1,420-mm pipe production line, which will result in the increase in the line's annual capacity from 570 to 950 thousand tonnes, while the total annual capacity of the LDP Electric Pipe-Welding Division (LDP EPWD) is supposed to go up to 2 million tonnes.

In addition, the complex will be equipped with two lines, made by Selmers Technology B. V. (the Netherlands), for external corrosion resistant coating (CRC), making it possible to increase the external CRC capacity from 0,87 million tonnes - to 1,82 million tonnes of pipes a year. It is also planned to modernize, in partnership with Bauhuis International B.V. (the Netherlands), an internal CRP line, with its annual capacity to increase from 570 thousand tonnes - to 950 thousand tonnes of pipes.