Liberty Steel recently won a contract to supply pipelines from its Hartlepool steel manufacturing site in the United Kingdom for energy infrastructure and carbon-capture projects.
Liberty’s parent company, GFG Alliance, said in a March 15 statement that Liberty Pipes Hartlepool (LPH), located in northeast England, will supply onshore and offshore pipes to the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) and Net Zero Teesside Power (NZT Power).
“NEP aims to build the CO2 transportation and storage infrastructure to serve East Coast Cluster carbon capture projects,” Liberty stated. “While NZT Power aims to be one of the world’s first commercial-scale gas-fired power stations with carbon capture.”
However, the final contract award is subject to receipt of regulatory clearances and final investment decisions. Liberty stated that this is either due in September or at an earlier date, with pipe production to commence in Q1 2025.
While the two projects have a total value of about £4 billion ($5.1 billion), a GFG Alliance spokesman declined to indicate the tentative pipe supply contract’s value or how many tons LPH would supply.
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Major News for UK Steel Manufacturing
The Hartlepool plant lies in County Durham, about 260 miles from London. Reports indicate that the annual rolling capacity at the plant is 250,000 metric tons of pipe products and hollow sections.
According to information on the facility’s website, the 42” double-submerged arc welded pipe mill uses the U-ing-O-ing-Expanding production method to produce American Petroleum Institute-grade line pipes in 406.4-,1066.8mm diameters and with 8.74-51mm wall thicknesses.
As indicated in one of the product brochures on LPH’s website, the plate used for feedstock comes either from other Liberty assets or from third parties, Liberty acquired the Hartlepool plant in 2017 from Tata Steel, which was selling off parts of its UK business at the time.
A Reuters report from July of the same year stated that this was mainly due to the company’s plans to merge its European assets with ThyssenKrupp’s. GFG Alliance also noted that LPH passed trials to become the first UK producer of pipelines for safe transportation and storage of hydrogen just last year.
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