Russia's largest oil and gas pipe producer TMK has announced that it has begun shipments of longitudinally welded large diameter (LD) pipes for the Russian part of the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline spur which will transport crude oil to China.
Accordingly, during the second and third quarters of 2009, TMK is to supply to Transneft contractor Promstroy Group a total of 10,300 mt of K52 and K56 grade LD pipes of 530-1,420 mm diameter and of 5-16 mm wall thickness.
The pipes will be manufactured at TMK's subsidiary Volzhsky plant and will be used to construct the ESPO pipeline spur from the town of Skovorodino to the Amur River on the Sino-Russian border.
The 4,700 km-long ESPO pipeline system will transport Russian crude oil to the Asia-Pacific markets, and will run from the town of Taishet to the Kozmino export terminal on Russia's Pacific coast.
The 1,030 km-long Russia-China ESPO pipeline spur will span from Skovorodino, Russia to the northeastern Chinese city of Daqing. Running 67 km in Russia and 960 km in China, the pipeline is expected to transport 15 million tons of crude oil annually from Russia to China.