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Market information
More orders expected in
2018 again
The offshore industry has been highly volatile over the last few years. “The sharp drop in oil prices has led to a decline in sales here recently,” says Dr. Zimmer- mann, “resulting in fewer orders from energy companies.” But there may well be a trend reversal soon. “We reckon there’ll be some slight recovery over the next few years, sothat–likeothersupplierstothe offshore industry – we’re likely to receive more orders again in 2018.”
There has also been considerable pressure on the Norwegian oil industry. Norway is particularly well known for its big oil and gas industry, which contributes around 20 per cent to the coun- try’s annual economic output. Norway is now having to secure its position on the oil market for the next 30 years.
Production due to start in
late 2019
All the relevant conditions are in place, as there are enormous oil and gas reserves just off the Norwegian coast. One of them is the Johan Sverdrup Oil Field, one of Norway’s biggest oil elds, with an overall volume estimated between 1.7 and 3.0 billion barrels. The deposit is situated 120 metres (400 feet) below sea level and is 1,900 metres (2,600 feet) deep. The entire area covers around 200 square kilometres (77 square miles).
About 12 billion euros is being invested in the rst stage of devel- opment. This includes the drilling holes, installing feed pipes and particularly also setting up four xed platforms. “These are a pro- cessing platform, a riser platform, a drilling platform and a living quarters platform, all connected
by bridges with lengths between 80 and 100 metres (60 and 330 feet). Two further platforms will be added at the next stages. Once production has started at the end of 2019, Norway is expecting to extract oil from this eld until 2050. Daybyday,apipelinewillthentake some 550,000 barrels to the Mong- stad Terminal in Hordaland.
Over 1,400 tonnes of total weight
Butting received a contract for the production of longitudinally welded pipes for all four plat- forms and also for the connect- ing bridges. “The requirements on materials at sea are very high due to the enormous stress caused by the salty air. Butting there- fore used 6 Moly, 316L, Duplex and Superduplex as materials,” says Christian Schenk from Sales CRA Pipes. The dimensions of the pipes, made and delivered by Butting, range from OD 2” to 30” with lengths of 6 to 12 metres (20 to 40 feet). The pipes supplied to the Johan Sverdrup Oil Field had a weight of over 1,400 tonnes in all.
The transportation of energy is a major focal area in nearly all of Europe, e.g. the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) which forms part of the Southern Gas Corridor, due to take gas from Azerbaijan to western and south-eastern Europe from 2020 onwards. It connects with the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), runs through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, and eventually reaches Italy, cover- ing around 870 kilometres (540 miles) in all.
Engineering Supports and Trainings
Almost one third of the TAP pipe- line was supplied by the Salzgitter group via its international trading organisations. This included 270
kilometres of large-diameter pipes of the EUROPIPE joint venture and 1,559 pipe bends supplied by the pipe bending plant in Mülheim with a total tonnage of some 170,000 tons for the onshore area in Albania. More than 71,000 tons of large-diameter pipes are scheduled for the 105 kilometres long offshore part of this pipeline along the Albanian coast to Italy. A top order at its best.
What are today’s expectations on suppliers to the oil and gas industry? According to Vallourec, there is currently an increasing demand for pipe-related services, especially technical consultancy and application-focused training, ranging from lectures for drilling engineers to training sessions for entire rig crews. Lifetime manage- ment, too, is gaining in impor- tance. The aim is “to provide highly ef cient technical systems that will give each customer maximum support in reaching their cost optimisation target. The customer looks at the entire cost of a given investment, including running expenses and also any repairs and servicing that may be required. It’s the total cost of ownership that matters,” says Dr. Dirk Bissel from Vallourec.
Service along the entire lifecycle
Comprehensive solutions are expected in all the product seg- ments of a seamless pipe manu- facturer – OCTG, line pipes, drill pipes and Serimax welding ser- vices – covering the full range, from simple tasks to high-end solutions for complex operations in oil and gas elds.
Such services often accompany the entire lifecycle of a product and project. Technical support starts at a very early stage, “so
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