Five kilometres of stainless steel gas pipelines were recently laid in Upper Austria

In the spring of 2021, Kremsmüller Pipeline and Plant Construction laid a five-kilometre-long natural gas pipeline for RAG Exploration & Production GmbH. The new stainless steel pipeline in the district of Penzendorf in Upper Austria was inserted into an existing plastic pipeline that needed to be replaced. In the process, up to 600 metres of stainless steel pipeline were pre-welded into one piece on site and then fed in.

The operating pressure of a natural gas pipeline is 16 bar, which meant that the quality of every weld seam had to be flawless. As a result, each individual seam was x-rayed and perfectly executed.

The project also met with a number of challenges as a result of the adverse weather conditions that often arose during operations, which began in early February and lasted 10 weeks in total.

In addition to renewing the pipeline, test facilities were set up to assess the water temperature at a depth of approximately 60 metres. The operator repeatedly tests the sites to assess their suitability for geothermal use of the deep heat. This way, green electricity can be generated with minimal impact on the environment.

Our teams from the Pipeline and Plant Construction Division are continuously at work constructing or renewing pipelines, making connections for oil and gas wells or setting up test facilities.