Tata Steel has been awarded a major contract worth more than £100 million to provide pipe for Discovery Producer Services L.L.C. (Discovery) gas pipeline in Keathley Canyon, Gulf of Mexico. Discovery is a 60:40 joint venture between Williams Partners L.P. and DCP Midstream Partners L.P.
The company will supply Discovery’s Keathley Canyon ConnectorTM with 214 miles (345km) of 20-inch diameter submerged arc welded linepipe, weighing more than 110,000 metric tonnes. The pipe will be manufactured at Tata Steel’s 42-inch mill in Hartlepool, England. Delivery is scheduled for the second half of this year.
The new contract comes soon after the company announced it had secured an order to supply 48,000 tonnes of steel pipe for an oil pipeline for the Lucius Development Project also in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Keathley Canyon ConnectorTM gas pipe will have a gathering capacity of over 400 million cubic feet, gathering the gas from the Keathley Canyon, Walker Ridge and Green Canyon areas of the Gulf of Mexico. The pipe will be laid at water depths of up to 7,380 feet (2,250 metres) and is designed to meet the required specification for deepwater conditions.
Deirdre Fox, director of sales and marketing at Tata Steel, said: “This is the second contract we have secured within the Keathley Canyon development, highlighting our proven success in providing linepipe for deepwater conditions.
“This contract for our 42-inch mill in Hartlepool was awarded based on our excellent dimensional tolerance control, enabling us to offer enhanced deepwater anti-collapse properties and fast lay rates. The Gulf of Mexico is a key strategic focus for Tata Steel and we are delighted to announce this latest successful contract win.”
Andy Hill, manager of Tata Steel’s 42 inch pipe mill in Hartlepool, said: “These two major contracts confirm the leading position of Tata Steel’s Teesside pipemaking facilities as a supplier of technically demanding deepwater linepipe.”
Tata Steel has three pipe and tube mills at its Hartlepool site where it employs more than 700 people. Across the Teesside region it has about 1,500 employees making and developing steel products for customers around the world. The company has invested about £13 million in its Teesside sites over the past year.