A NORTH East steel mill has secured a contract to manufacture more than 16 kilometres of heavy-duty steel pipe for a multi-billion-dollar offshore Saudi Arabian oil and gas development.

Liberty Steel Hartlepool, which is part of the GFG Alliance, will be supplying SAWL Linepipe for an expansion of the Saudi Aramco Marjan field after securing its first major contract with the Middle Eastern Kingdom since being acquired by Liberty almost two years ago.

Since then the plant has fulfilled major orders from North Sea oil and gas producers and a range of American customers but the latest contract represents a breakthrough in efforts to establish a presence in the world’s largest oil and gas producing region.

Martyn Curnow, commercial director, Liberty Steel Hartlepool, said: “Our facility has a proven global track record of managing projects with stringent technical requirements. The team, led by Steve Brooke in the UK and Saad Jakani in the United Arab Emirates, worked tirelessly with the client to ensure that the demanding specification was fully understood and delivered a robust technical proposal which we are sure was a key consideration in the evaluation and acceptance of our offer.

“It is extremely pleasing to re-establish the Hartlepool mill as a supplier in the region following a significant period of absence. This success is testament to the hard work and commitment shown by our employees in all areas of the business.”

Saudi Aramco is planning to boost the Marjan and Berri fields’ production capacity by 550,000 barrels per day of crude oil and 2.5 billion cubic feet a day of gas.

Liberty will supply the Marjan project with more than 16 kilometres of submerged arc welded linepipe (SAWL) from its 42-inch UOE mill, one of two mills it operates at Hartlepool.

Sanjeev Gupta, executive chairman of the GFG Alliance, said: “We’re delighted to have secured this very important order. Given that we are operating in very tough market conditions, the award of this contract further underlines the quality of the work at Hartlepool and the team’s ability to meet the highest global standards.”