Officials at the signing ceremony
Al Gharbia awards steel pipe plant EPC contract
ABU DHABI, August 10, 2015
A consortium comprising SMS Group and Larsen & Toubro has been awarded the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract by Al Gharbia Pipe Co for its new steel pipe plant.
Al Gharbia Pipe Co, a joint venture between UAE's Senaat (51 per cent) and two of Japan’s leading companies in the steel sector, JFE Steel Corporation and Marubeni-Itochu Steel, is set to be the UAE’s first sour service capable, longitudinally welded steel pipe manufacturing plant, said a statement.
A signing ceremony was held at Senaat’s headquarters at Etihad Towers.
The SMS Group and Larsen & Toubro will jointly be responsible for constructing the complete plant on a turn-key basis, it said.
Located in the Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad) and with operations expected to formally launch in 2018, Al Gharbia Pipe Company’s production capacity is set to reach 240,000 tonnes annually, targeting the UAE market as well as neighbouring markets in the GCC and greater Middle East and East Africa.
Al Gharbia Pipe Company will manufacture and sell large diameter, high quality, sour grade Longitudinally Submerged Arc Welded (LSAW) steel pipes that cater chiefly to the oil and gas sector.
Material grades produced will be capable of minimising corrosion associated with sour environments, which are increasingly becoming the norm in the area's gas exploration projects.
Jamal Salem Al Dhaheri, acting CEO at Senaat, said: “Senaat plays a key role in creating projects that contribute to the countries industrial diversification efforts. Al Gharbia Pipe Company was born out of that ambition.
“Ours and our partner’s vision for this project is driven by a growing global energy demand and will address the region’s increasing demand for world-class high-quality steel pipelines, increasingly sour oil and gas deposits and ever-more stringent product quality specifications, the demand of which is currently being satisfied through imported products from outside the region,” he said.
“Commencing work on Al Gharbia Pipe Company demonstrates further progress being made on supporting the implementation of Abu Dhabi's Economic Vision; and building the foundations necessary to manufacture industrial products that will reinforce the UAE’s position on the international map,” he added.
“The SMS-L&T consortium has a proven track record in this specialised line of work, and we have all the confidence that they are the right partners in furthering our role in diversifying national economy,” Al Dhaheri concluded. – TradeArabia News Service