Nippon Steel Gets 20,000t High Performance UO Pipe from Gazprom

Nippon Steel announced on Friday the firm and its subsidiary, Nippon Steel Trading got 20,000 tonnes order for UO steel pipe with high uniform elongation and low yield strength ratio from in Russia by Russian Gazprom for natural gas pipeline. The order is the first commercial scale order receipt of the product. They provide pipe with X65 grade of American Petroleum Institute and with 32.5 millimeters thickness and 36 inches of diameter.

The high performance pipe, Tough-Ace has high uniform elongation and low yield strength ratio to prevent ductile fracture in seismic or permafrost regions. Nippon Steel developed the product by improving technology for plate rolling and heat treatment.

Nippon Steel has supplied the high performance pipe to users as trial. However, the firm got the first commercial scale order from Gazprom and the order is also the first order for Nippon Steel from the Russian energy giant. The 20,000 tonnes pipe is used in about 20 kilometers seismic region in 1,850 km pipeline project, Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok pipeline. Nippon Steel has completed the production at Kimitsu works delivering to Russia in the month.

Nippon Steel has cooperated with Gazprom in development of high grade pipe, which is used in severe weather with minus 40 degrees centigrade. Nippon Steel provides high grade plate to Russian pipe makers to contribute to natural gas development.