Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Oct. 5 /Trend D.Azizov/
Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK, Russia) - one of the world's largest producers of pipes for oil and gas industry - has completed the supply of large-diameter pipes for the construction of the third branch of Central Asia-China pipeline in line with the agreement, TMK's report said on Friday.
According to the contract, in January-September 2013 the company shipped over 100,000 tons of straight seam welded pipes with a diameter of 1,219,000 millimetres (mm) and wall thickness of 17.5 mm with an external three-layer polyethylene coating, the report said.
The pipes were produced by the Volga Pipe Plant in accordance with API Spec 5L standard of American Petroleum Institute.
It was earlier reported that, the supply of pipes for the construction of the third branch of the gas pipeline is also carried out by Vyksa Steel Works (VSW, located in Vyksa city of Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region), which is included in the United Metallurgical Company (UMC), and Chelyabinsk Tube-Rolling Plant JSC (CTRP).
VSW will deliver 125,000 tons of pipes with a diameter of 1.219,000 mm and wall thickness of 17.5 mm, made from the steel of L555M/X80M strength grade with external and internal anti-corrosion coating, which also corresponds to API Spec 5L standard (PSL 2 level) of the American Petroleum Institute.
In turn, the CTRP will supply Uzbekistan with some 200,000 tons of pipes with diameter of 1,219,000 mm, with a wall thickness of 17.5 mm and 20.6 mm.
It was previously reported that in December 2011, Uzbekistan and China started the construction of the third branch of Central Asia-China gas pipeline's Uzbek section.
The Uzbekistan-China pipeline is a section of the Central Asia-China pipeline, passing through Uzbekistan's territory and is meant for transit of Turkmen gas and export of Uzbek gas to China.
The project's operator is the Uzbek-Chinese Joint Venture Asia Trans Gas Ltd., created by the National Holding Company (NHC) Uzbekneftegaz and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).
Till 2014 it is planned to build primarily the third branch of gas pipeline, with a length of 318 km from Gazli (Bukhara oblast) to the state border of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan with all associated infrastructure.
The construction of the second phase of the third branch with a length of 212 km from Uzbekistan's border with Turkmenistan to Gazli is to be completed in January 2015. The design capacity of the third branch is 25 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
Financing of the project worth about $2.2 billion is carried out at the expense of China Development Bank loans and direct investments of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).
The construction of the Central Asia-China pipeline began in 2008. Its total length is about 7,000 km, the pipe diameter is 1,067,000 mm, and the capacity of pipeline's two branches is 30 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
The length of the pipeline on Uzbekistan's territory is 525 km.
The first of the two branches of the pipeline was commissioned in December 2009, and the construction of pipeline's second branch was completed in 2010.
The export contract for supply of Uzbek natural gas to China in the amount of 10 billion cubic meters per year was signed in October 2011.
Uzbekistan started regular supplies of natural gas to China in August 2012.