Contracts worth some NOK 385 million to supply carbon steel for pipelines in two Statoil developments off Norway have been awarded to Japanese steel supplier Mitsui/Sumitomo.
While the order for Snøhvit in the Barents Sea has a value in the order of NOK 340 million, deliveries to the Visund gas development in the North Sea will be worth about NOK 45 million.
The Snøhvit delivery covers 28-inch line pipe for the 143-kilometre pipeline to link this field with the land-based processing plant at Melkøya in northern Norway.
Under the Visund contract 20-inch line pipe will be supplied for the 38-kilometre pipeline planned from the field platform.
This will tie into the Kvitebjørn gas line, which runs to the Kollsnes gas processing plant near Bergen.
The steel for both projects is due to be delivered in the second half of 2004, and plans call for pipelaying to be carried out over the year from that autumn.
A pipelaying contract is due to be awarded later this year, with Snøhvit scheduled to come on stream in 2006 and the Visund gas project to start production in the autumn of 2005.