Tulsa-based Flow-Quip Inc. has been won a USD 3 million contract to supply up to 250 solar-powered valve actuators for a major pipeline modernisation project in Brazil. Milton Fore, Flow-Quip president, said product shipments will begin in December and continue through mid-2002. The actuators will be fitted on full port pipeline ball valves ranging in size up to 20 inches that will be installed in pipelines owned by Petrobras in the Bahia, Seal and Espiritu Santo regions of the country. Flow-Quip said its solar-powered actuators were designed to operate in areas where traditional commercial electrical power sources do not exist or are unreliable. They can be activated through direct radio, via satellite, wireless radio or a combination of these communications channels and give operators the ability to close valves in five seconds to stop product flows from a pipeline leak or break.