TMK, one of the world's largest oil and gas pipe producers and the market leader of the Russian pipe industry, announces today that it began shipments of longitudinal welded large-diameter pipes for the Russian part of the Eastern Siberia–Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline spur to China.

The pipes, manufactured at TMK’s Volzhsky plant, will be used to construct the ESPO pipeline spur from the town of Skovorodino to the Amur River on the Sino-Russian border.

During the second and third quarters of 2009, TMK will supply a total of 10,300 tonnes of large-diameter pipes with diameters of 530mm to 1420mm, wall thickness ranging from 5mm to16mm and of K52 and K56 grades to Transneft contractor, Promstroy Group.

The ESPO pipeline system will transport Russian crude oil to the Asia-Pacific markets. The 4,700 kilometre long pipeline will run from the town of Taishet to the Kozmino export terminal on Russia's Pacific coast

The 1,030 kilometre-long Russia-China ESPO pipeline spur will span from Skovorodino, Russia to China's north-eastern city of Daqing. Running 67 km in Russia and 960 km in China, the pipeline is expected to transport 15 million tonnes of crude oil annually from Russia to China.