OREANDA-NEWS. Vyska Steel Works (VSW Open Joint Stock Company, based in Vyska, part of United Metallurgical Company, OMK CJSC, based in Moscow) started producing large diameter pipes for the first offshore section of the South Stream gas pipeline.

According to the technical requirements, the pipes are 813 mm (32 inches) in diameter, with 39 mm thick walls that have an internal and polypropylene outer coating. Each pipe is 12 m long. The pipes are made out of SAWL 450 steel in compliance with the DNV-OS-F101 (2010) standard and the technical requirements specified by South Stream Transport.

The pipes for South Stream's first section are made from specially certified rolled steel imported from the European Union. The rolled steel manufactured at Vyksa Steel Works' Mill-5000 will be certified to produce pipes for the gas pipeline's second section. This will make it possible to fully localize the pipe production chain for South Stream in Russia.

“The ongoing cooperation we have enjoyed with Gazprom, the main consumer of our large diameter pipes, on designing new kinds of products since the early 2000s, has enabled us to reach a new technological level. Being aware of Gazprom's long-term requirements, we have invested 72 billion rubles into the latest equipment and technologies for both large diameter pipe production and the special rolled steel grades for them. Today, OMK has one of the world's most powerful and contemporary integrated complexes for producing LDPs of any complexity level. The company is the world's leader in delivering pipes for offshore pipelines. For the last three years, OMK has delivered over 1 million tons of production to its clients. We are also leading in South Stream's tenders, having received 35% of the total orders which amounts to over 600 kilometers of pipes,” said Anatoly Sedykh, Chairman of the Board at OMK.