Essar Construction (India) Ltd (ECIL), part of the Essar Group, which is primarily into in laying cross-country oil, gas and water pipelines, is getting ready to take up turnkey projects, as Essar’s Rs 800-crore saw pipe mill at Hazira nears completion.

Essar Construction, which has been procuring pipes from outside, will be able to take up EPC projects on a turnkey basis, as it would have captive supply of pipes after the Hazira facility is commissioned by March 2009.

The pile mill facility, which will have a capacity of about 0.6 million tonnes, is designed to have three mills that will be able to produce pipes of diameter ranging from 16 to 100 inches — these can be used for transportation of oil, gas and water products.

The Hazira facility will join the ranks of major pipeline producers such as Gujarat Wellspun, which is at present India’s biggest with a capacity of one million tonnes, PSL, Man Industries and Jindal Saw Pipes.

Mr V.N. Paradkar, ECIL’s Chief Executive Officer, told Business Line that with the assured supply of pipes after the commissioning of the Hazira facility, the company will sharpen its focus on overseas projects, especially in West Asia , on a turnkey basis. The pipe mill will be utilising the steel produced by Essar Group’s Hazira steel plant. “Oil companies generally procure their own pipes and supply us for laying the pipeline. But for other companies, we have to depend on the market for supplies, which usually takes six to eight months from the day we place the order. Once our own facility comes up, we will have assured supply of pipelines to enable us to handle EPC contracts,” Mr Paradkar said.

ECIL, which has so far executed about 3,000 km of pipelines, is in the process of executing another 1000 km of pipeline projects. It recently bagged a Rs 410-crore order from GAIL for laying 333 km of pipeline for the 500-km Dadri to Vijaipur (MP) pipeline project. The major projects executed by the company include the Rs 339-crore Bharuch-Jamnagar gas pipeline project involving a pipeline length of 109 km, the 147-km long Dahej-Uran pipeline for GAIL and the Rs 122-crore Mumbai-Delhi project for HPCL.

The company is executing projects worth about Rs 750 crore, including the Rs 221-crore Bharuch-Jamnagar pipeline project-spread 2, the Rs 235-crore Ambatovy nickel ore slurry pipeline project that is scheduled to go on stream by June 2009 and the Vadinar-Bina project for Bharat Oman Refinery Ltd.

“All the projects currently under execution will be completed by December 2009. We see that at any time we have on hand orders for 1000 km of work,” the company’s CEO said. As part of its increased focus on overseas projects, ECIL is in the race for a $3005-million water transmission system in Saudi Arabia.