Liberty Steel Hartlepool, part of Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance, has secured a milestone contract to manufacture more than 16km of heavy-duty steel pipe for a multi-billion-dollar offshore oil and gas development in Saudi Arabia.

The order to supply Submerged Arc Welded Linepipe (SAWL) for an expansion of the Saudi Aramco Marjan field is the first major contract the Hartlepool mills have won from Saudi Arabia since being acquired by Liberty almost two years ago.

Saudi Aramco (www.saudiaramco.com/ar) is the world’s biggest oil and gas company by revenue, and Liberty is hopeful that this contract will lead to further opportunities.

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 ft₃ per day of gas.

In conjunction with Sumitomo Corporation Middle East FZE, Liberty will supply the SAWL from its 42in UOE mill — one of two mills it operates in Hartlepool. The material is due for delivery in the final quarter of 2019.

Martyn Curnow, Liberty Steel Hartlepool’s commercial director (www.libertyhousegroup.com), said: “Our facility has a proven global track record of managing projects with stringent technical requirements.

"The team worked tirelessly with the client to ensure that the demanding specification was fully understoodand delivered a robust technical proposal, which we are sure was a key consideration in the evaluation and acceptance of our offer.”

He added: “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.”