OREANDA-NEWS. November 13, 2008. TMK, one of the world's largest producers of pipes for the oil and gas sector, announces today that a group of distinguished guests, including Presidential Envoy to the Southern Federal District, Vladimir Ustinov, the Governor of the Volgograd region, Nikolay Maksyuta, and Lukoil President, Vagit Alekperov, visited TMK’s Volzhsky Pipe Plant. The group visited Volzhsky’s welded operations and became acquainted with the newly commissioned large-diameter longitudinal welded pipe mill.

The new 650 thousand tonne mill, the first of its kind in Russia, was manufactured by Switzerland’s HAEULSER AG and produces longitudinal welded pipes of up to X100 grade with diameters ranging from 530mm to 1420mm and wall thickness of up to 42mm. Production certification and qualification with Russia’s largest oil and gas companies is underway.

Exterior anticorrosion coating capacities for longitudinal and spiral welded pipes with diameters ranging from 508 to 1422 mm and wall thickness between 7 and 48 mm were added to the mill.  The equipment has the capacity to coat 650 thousand tonnes of pipes per year.  Additionally, a further 600 thousand tonnes of interior smooth coating capacity for pipes with diameters ranging from 508 to 1420 mm and wall thickness between 9 and 48 mm was commissioned earlier this year

Large-diameter pipes are used in long distance oil and gas pipelines including offshore pipelines, oil field pipelines, general purpose pipelines, and in the construction of heating systems and nuclear power stations.