Jointly working with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (headed by the president NISHIOKA Takashi) and two Russian firms, Nissho Iwai Corporation has won a contract worth about seven billion yen to supply "Gazcomplektimpex," the machinery & equipment procurement division of the Russian gas producer and retailer "Gazprom"(of Moscow), with "gas compressors for gas compressor stations" for one of Russia's major gas pipelines.

Gazprom has been implementing its Blue Steam Project to lay a 760km natural gas pipeline connecting Stavropol-City of Russia and Sumsung City of Turkey via the Black Sea, which is expected to begin delivering to Turkey in early 2002 sixteen billion cubic meters a year of natural gas. Meant to supply for the gas pipeline project, this contract covers large-sized compressors for natural gas pumping units and a battery of incidental facilities on the condition that Russian-made gas turbines be used to drive the compressors in line with the Russian policy to give priority to Russian products.

Gazprom is the world's largest gas producing and sales company with about 25 percent of the world's gas reserves, supplying 40 percent of Europe's natural gas. The Russian gas supplier has a total length of 150,000 km of pipelines, and more than 4,000 units of compressor, which are mostly obsolete with more than 20 years past after they were made, making it likely that there will be an requirement for several hundreds of compressor a year in years ahead.

Following the Blue Steam Project is the Yamal-Europe Project that is intended to boost the carrying capacity of the existing major pipeline of a total length of 5,100 km extending as far as Poland and Germany from the Yamal Peninsula of northern Russia via Belarus. To get this project, too, Nissho Iwai has been conducting negotiations in collaboration with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. With the world's growing use of natural gas, which is less taxing to the environment, the hope is that this contract will be the beginning of a significant presence we may have in the business of large-sized compressors for natural gas carrying pipelines, for which we will work to get more orders.