Germany’s Salzgitter Mannesmann International GmbH has won the Dolphin Energy Limited line pipe supply purchase contract.

The contract involves supplying line pipe for Dolphin’s new Taweelah to Fujairah Gas Pipeline (TFP) across the UAE.

Salzgitter will manufacture the line pipe at the Europipe Steel Mill in Germany. This purchase order is worth more than $200 million and some 120,000 tons of X70 48-inch coated line pipe will be supplied, said an official spokesman.

First deliveries are expected in the summer of 2008, with delivery completion in spring 2009.

The pipeline will link Dolphin Energy’s gas receiving facilities at Taweelah on the coast of Abu Dhabi with the ADWEA Power and Water Desalination Plant at Qidfa in Fujairah, on the UAE’s east coast. It will be laid over an environmentally approved cross-country route, through more than 240 kilometers of desert and mountainside.

Meanwhile, the bids for the design and construction of the TFP are due by January 31, 2008. Nine contracting companies were invited to bid in November 2007. The contractor will be appointed before summer, with site work due to begin shortly thereafter.

“There is a strong world demand of quality steel pipe – Dolphin has had to compete with other major international projects to secure the line pipe for the TFP Project,” said Dolphin Energy’s general manager, UAE, Ibrahim Ahmed Al Ansari.

“We undertook a fast-track procurement process, and we have been able to achieve a very competitive price and delivery schedule in difficult market conditions. We are committed to supporting ADWEA’s gas requirements in Qidfa, Fujairah,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service