Sumitomo Metal Industries and Sumitomo Corporation announced on Wednesday Sumitomo Metals starts production of high strength large diameter welded UOE line pipe for Ichthys liquid natural gas project in Western Australia after they signed supply contract with Ichthys joint venture in February. They supply around 180 kilometers or 138,200 tonnes steel pipe for the project to construct around 889 km of seafloor gas transport pipeline.
The project led by Inpex Corporation is to transport natural gas from Ichthys offshore gas condensate field to onshore LNG plant in Darwin. The plant makes annual 8.4 million tonnes of LNG and 1.6 million tonnes of liquid petroleum gas while the offshore facilities ship daily around 100,000 barrels of condensate. The project supplies 70% of the production to Japan under long term contract. The project is promising for Japanese stable energy source. Sumitomo Metals’ pipe is used for seafloor transport pipeline. Sumitomo Metals and Sumitomo Corp. contribute to the project for Japanese energy security as world top class suppliers of corrosion resistance steel pipe.