Metal Miner reported that the Nabucco Gas Pipeline, which will run from Azerbaijan in the initial stage but the intention is to extend spokes to Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Iraq and perhaps Iran to double the capacity, would spur competition among steel pipe producers .

The project is being built by a consortium from Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey. It aims to be in service by 2014 with an initial target of 31 billion cubic meters per year, equal to a quarter of current supply from Russia’s Gazprom.

The 2,000 mile pipeline will not only provide lucrative construction projects but will represent a sizable steel demand in its own right. If Nabucco is designed with no more than the Blue Stream project this would require nearly 3.4 million tonnes of steel pipe, plus pumping stations, large amounts of sacrificial anodes and associated metals.

The pipe size may be an underestimate and not just due to the volumes being promised, a project to bring natural gas from Alaska to Chicago earlier this decade was proposing 52 diameter pipe and much heavier walls due to the pressures needed to pump gas the 3600 miles required.

Nabucco is not intended to be that long but at 2,000 miles plus it is getting closer than Blue Stream’s 500 miles. Larger diameter and greater pressure also requires more sophisticated steel alloys probably requiring higher molybdenum content. With major steel producers in the area there will be intense competition to supply.

Blue Stream was mostly supplied by Kawasaki, Nippon, NKK and Sumitomo plus Corus in the UK, but European backers may well be looking for local mills to play a bigger role this time.

(Sourced from Metal Miner)