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Time Warp – Turkish OCTG in the US
Posted by: In: Drill Pipe, OCTG News, Oil & Gas Industry, Oil Country Tubular Goods, Pipe & Tube Products 15 Jul 2013 Comments: 0 Tags: , ,

An article about the rise of Turkey’s Borusan Steel published by PR newswire early in the year is an interesting time warp to look through for anyone keeping up with the recent imposition of anti-dumping duties and ongoing AISI backed investigation of OCTG imports from Turkey and 8 other countries. Turkish steel’s US relationship isn’t showing the promise that it was just a short time ago.

 

Stacked steel pipe

 

 

Sourced from Borusan Mannesmann:

Turkey’s leading steel pipe manufacturer, Borusan Mannesmann, will invest 150 million USD in the United States to establish a steel pipe manufacturing plant to cater to the energy sector. This plant is set to start production in 2014 and will make Borusan Mannesmann a global player in the industry.

Borusan Mannesmann, one of the foremost manufacturers of the European steel pipe industry, prepares to make a strategic investment in line with its vision of becoming a global player. Supplying the U.S. market with pipes used in the energy sector for several years, Borusan Mannesmann now aims to become a local manufacturer in order to be closer to the market and its customer base.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130102/586297 )

To this end, a pipe manufacturing plant with an annual production capacity of 300,000 tons will be established in the United States. With an investment of 150 million USD, the plant will focus its output on OCTG and ERW line pipes. The target revenue for the US-based company is estimated at 500 million USD.

Scheduled to start production by mid-2014, the plant is designed to produce the thick-walled and high-strength pipes suitable for state-of-the-art, advanced OCTG technology used in ‘shale gas’ production. Final decision on the location of investment is not finalized yet but Texas and Oklahoma are the leading states to attract the investment through their incentive programs. The facility will be built on nearly 125 acres of land and provide 350 people with employment when it becomes operational.

A First in the Steel Pipe Sector

Agâh Uğur, Borusan Holding Group CEO, comments on the subject as follows:

“Borusan Mannesmann is among the leading players of the steel pipe market in Europe. One of its top goals is to become a global player in the pipe industry. This investment is not only a way to insert Borusan Mannesmann into the U.S. market; it is also the first step to becoming an international manufacturer.

As a Turkish firm that has made a name for itself through its success in exports, Borusan Mannesmann now strengthens its global presence with an investment in the competitive, yet widely recognized, market of the United States.

Borusan Mannesmann grows and expands by focusing on production for high-value-added sectors such as energy and automotive. In a first for the Turkish industry, we are now becoming the first Turkish company to invest in the steel pipe sector in the United States with this venture. This is our second overseas investment after our automotive pipe manufacturing plant in Italy. We have a strategic and long-term view of the American market due to its size and quality approach. Favorable changes to the energy policies in the United States, as well as the advancements in the shale gas technology, were the factors that hastened our investment decision at this time of global recession.”

Underlining that “OCTG and line pipes are a promising future market,” Borusan Mannesmann, Board Chairman Semih Özmen, added:

“Investing in a product that requires the use of advanced technology such as OCTG pipes requires significant know-how and expertise and our new CEO, Buddy Brewer, is among the few individuals with the experience and knowledge to carry this through. Not only that, Borusan Mannesmann is among the few firms with the strength to make such an investment.”

Successful rise in the U.S. market

To date, Borusan Mannesmann has realized many oil and natural gas pipeline projects in Turkey, Central Europe, and North Africa. The Elba Express and Line 300 natural gas pipeline projects brought the company prestige in the U.S. market. Over the last three years, Borusan Mannesmann has become one of the largest international companies that export to the United States the pipes used in oil and natural gas exploration and extraction.

Thanks to breakthroughs made in the technical and commercial fields, Borusan Mannesmann has increased exports from 90 million USD in 2009 to 184 million USD in 2012. With 40 percent of its exports currently destined for the United States as well as this noted significant increase, Borusan Mannesmann is well on its way to accomplish its goal as a strong local and international player in the market.

 

 

Thomas Gibson, AISI president and CEO said:

 

“Imports from these countries have surged by 111% in the past few years, and the petitioners present that these imports have caused material injury to the domestic steel industry. US laws against unfair trade exist to counter market-distorting practices like subsidies and to restore conditions of fair trade, but this cannot occur unless all parties play by the rules. It is vital for US companies to have the chance to compete for business on a level playing field. We applaud these domestic steel companies for taking a stand and we urge the DOC and ITC to take a hard look and provide antidumping and countervailing duty relief for our industry.”

 

 

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Avoid Stuck Pipe (shown in yesterday’s video blog post)
Posted by: In: Drill Pipe, OCTG, OCTG News, Oil & Gas Industry, Oil Country Tubular Goods 12 Jul 2013 Comments: 0 Tags: , ,

VAM drilling has come out with a new drill pipe called ‘Hydroclean’ that is designed to hydromechanically clean a well hole, reducing equivalent circulating density issues which lead to stuck pipe.

ERD (Extended Reach Drilling) Hole-Cleaning can significantly reduce occurrences of stuck pipe and nonproductive time. This is important to consider, as each year the global OCTG industry looses an estimated $2 Billion to rig inactivity.

 

Luc Van Puymbroeck Writes:

 

Relatively speaking, drill pipe is a small expenditure compared with the

VAM's trademark Hydroclean drill pipe

VAM’s trademark Hydroclean drill pipe

nonproductive time (NPT) associated with its use. Studies have estimated global industry losses related to stuck pipe and loss circulation to be in the order of US $2 billion per year. This is more than twice the total amount spent to buy drill pipe in the first place and represents nearly 20% of the total NPT losses associated with drilling (Wellings & Co Survey, 2008, and Ivan et al, SPE 2004).

This also sets a framework around challenges and opportunities for drill pipe designs to increase efficiency and mitigate drilling risks. Complex and extended-reach drilling (ERD) well profiles are pushing drill pipe manufacturers to redefine performance limits, and those challenges are best met through a holistic engineered approach of the drill string design.

Hole cleaning & ECD

In many respects, the first approach to hole cleaning can look simple when considering only cuttings behavior by rotating the drill string and cuttings displacement using drilling fluid circulation. Mud rheology is also deemed to play a major role, but mud is only one part of a system approach, which requires all factors affecting cuttings behavior in the well to be addressed in concert. Analyzing cuttings ground by rotation of the drill string and cutting rates over the shakers is a first step toward developing hole-cleaning KPIs.

Efficient cuttings transport and keeping the well clean enough for trouble-free operations usually dictate the amount of time spent on cleaning the hole. Evaluation and performance analysis for drill string optimization, flat times, ECD, torque and drag are also commonly used for setting targets. The execution at the well site usually requires the drilling team to manage pre-established rig practices and procedures to achieve real-time performance improvement by monitoring the wellbore.

Pick-up weight is one performance indicator measured while tripping in and out of the hole and reciprocating the drill string. Implementing diligent hole-cleaning practices while tripping in with controlled axial speed and set flow rates, rotational speed at minimum levels, and ECD controls while moving the string upwards are other practical examples of hole-cleaning procedures in action. Measurement of pressure while drilling is routinely applied for monitoring cutting bed height equilibrium close to the bit and mostly used as an indicator of “out-of-control” hole cleaning.

The right approach to managing risks is to plan and address hole cleaning using a system approach. To this end, an in-depth performance analysis review of the drilling process, with emphasis on maximizing drilling time, is desired.  When economically justifiable, the use of mechanical hole cleaning devices should be considered to drill highly deviated wells with large hole sizes.

New drill pipe design

A new drill pipe design integrating hydromechanical cleaning features in the tool joint has been developed to increase hole-cleaning efficiency while drilling and to address ECD issues commonly encountered in ERD and horizontal wells. The drill pipe features specially designed bladed scallops in each tool joint, producing hydromechanical effects without compromising drill string performance.

Efficient cuttings transport is critical to achieve optimum hole cleaning, especially in horizontal wells. As fluid velocities become insufficient to maintain a clean hole, cutting beds start to form where they cannot be avoided. The hydrodynamic effects of the Hydroclean drill pipe gradually reduce cutting bed height by mechanical erosion of stagnating cutting buildup. Cuttings deposited on the low side of the hole are scooped and kept in suspension in the annulus above the rotating drill pipe, where fluid velocities are highest. This will lead to safer and faster drilling requiring less time for cleanups.

The new drill pipe provides immediate degradation of cutting beds and enhances hole cleaning through a combination of hydromechanical effects, such as scooping of cuttings and mechanical erosion of cutting beds by each tool joint, as well as maintaining continuous flow of cuttings in the high velocity annular space of the hole and sustaining the conveyor belt effect for efficient cuttings transport. The tool joint also has a dual-OD profile for increased wellbore stand-off, reducing pipe friction forces and wear.

Similarly, for a 65° inclination and 400 gal/min flow rate, the Hydroclean drill string was shown to be as effective in hole cleaning as standard drill pipe with 20% higher flow rate.”

 

 

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Tips and Tricks – Populate OCTG Definitions With a Single Click
Posted by: In: Drill Pipe, Inventory Control, OCTG, Oil Country Tubular Goods, Oilpatch, Pipe & Tube Products, Tallys, Tutorials 11 Jul 2013 Comments: 0 Tags: , ,

Users who will find this feature particularly useful are those frequently building racks for familiar inventory.

 

Tallys makes it is possible to relate OCTG definitions to one another, speeding up creation of a new rack when the spec of pipe to be stored is a common one. A ‘Pipe Def’, in Tallys is a collection of OCTG pipe definitions which streamlines entry of commonly seen inventory.  ‘Pipe Defs’ are optional, however most users agree that their implementation is a best practice as it saves valuable time. With all Size, Wall, Weight, Thread, Grade, Range, Manufacturer, Condition, and Category definitions entered, tie them together for future use when building a new rack. Pipe defs are created by selecting ‘Pipe Definitions’ from the main menu, then clicking on the ‘Pipe Defs’ tab followed by the ‘New Record’ button.
pipe_defs

 

.Note: Whenever a previously created ‘Pipe Def’ is to be selected, pressing ‘F2’ (on screen or on your keyboard) will present you with a pop up to choose your desired ‘Pipe Def’. Selecting a ‘Pipe Pef’ auto-populates all OCTG specifications (ie Size, Wall, Weight, Thread, Grade, Range, Manufacturer, Condition, and Category) at once.

 

 

 

 

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A Close Up Look at Seamless OCTG Production
Posted by: In: Drill Pipe, OCTG, Pipe & Tube Products, Tagged Drill Pipe, Tubulars 10 Jul 2013 Comments: 0 Tags: , ,

Earlier this week, we talked about ERW or Electric Resistance Welded OCTG. While ERW does make up the majority of pipe produced, Seamless OCTG is required in salt water drilling as well as for applications where higher safety standards and tensile strength is a must. Welded tubulars tend to be less durable and break down more quickly in harsh environments.

Drill pipe

Seamless Drill Pipe

 

 


This computer animation shows the milling process for seamless pipe in detail:

 

 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O2OL5I10fI?feature=player_detailpage&w=640&h=360]
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Tenaris Receives Zero Accident Award
Posted by: In: Drill Pipe, OCTG News, Oil & Gas Industry, Tallys, Tubulars 09 Jul 2013 Comments: 0 Tags: , , ,

Our partners at Tenaris continue to receive worldwide recognition for their efforts to promote safe work practices throughout the industry.

 

On April 30, Tenaris’ mill in Indonesia, SPIJ, received the Zero Accident Award from the Republic of Indonesia’s Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration. The award honored the mill’s achievement in implementing safety and health programs to reach 5,805,535 working hours without lost time injury, from December 20, 2009 to October 31, 2012.

“It is our honor to be recognized with this award,” said Dedi Kuncoro, Health, Safety and Environment Coordinator Indonesia. “With judging criteria that are very strict and constant observation of the mill’s activities, surpassing the 5 million hour mark without lost time injury is not easy and we managed to achieve it with our employees’ discipline and commitment. The award proves that Tenaris strongly values the safety and health of its people, contractors, customers and business partners.”

 

safety-800This is not the first award that the mill has received, as just one month prior they were recognized by the local government’s department of labor for implementing health, safety and environmental programs in the area.

Tenaris consists of a global network of manufacturing facilities, service yards and commercial offices, and provides casing and tubing, line pipe and various other mechanical and structural steel pipes for different applications.

Tenaris has partnered with Northwestern Support Professionals Inc. to provide integration for data standards into Tallys 512, which are being used today in over 20 Stocking Points in the oil industry.   Tallys 512 is the inventory control standard supported by many global steel manufacturers and suppliers.

Article via Tenaris.com.

ERW OCTG Explained
Posted by: In: Drill Pipe, OCTG, Oil & Gas Industry, Pipe & Tube Products, Pipe Casings, Tubulars 08 Jul 2013 Comments: 0 Tags: , , , ,

Most OCTG produced for today’s market is made with the ‘ERW’ process, as opposed to ‘SMLS’ or seamless. Tallys allows for these classifications to be stored and tracked as  ‘Grade’ definitions.

Drill Pipe

ERW Drill Pipe

‘ERW’ or Electric Resistance Welding, is the group of welding processes which include spot and seam welding. The video contained in Ben Bryant’s blog shows a tubing machine producing stainless steel OCTG.

 

 

Ben Bryant Wrote:

In the oil and gas industry we basically use two different processes to produce tubing and casing. These products are commonly referred to as OCTG or “Oil Country Tubular Goods”. These two processes produce the products we normally designate as either “SMLS” (seamless) or ERW (Electric Resistance Welded). The majority of OCTG produced today is manufactured using the ERW process.

This video, by Sunfone, shows a stainless steel tubing machine hard at work:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLnUcW1eFEI?feature=player_detailpage&w=640&h=360]

 

 

In this process, a flat rolled “coil” is manufactured at a steel mill to the exact thickness required for the intended weight per foot of the pipe to be produced. The “coil” is delivered to the Pipe Mill and goes to the “slitter” which cuts or slits the flat stock to the desired width needed to produce the required pipe diameter. The slit flat stock is then uncoiled and fed through a series of forming dies and rolled into a cylindrical tube. In a continuous process the formed metal is then welded together by a process known as “electric resistance welding”.  Hence, the term ERW.

 

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2013 OCTG Market Keeps Par With Last Year
Posted by: In: Drill Pipe, OCTG, OCTG News, Oil Country Tubular Goods, Oilpatch 05 Jul 2013 Comments: 0 Tags: , ,

The second half of 2013 is predicted to bring us to about the same year-end figures seen in 2012.  This is an optimistic forecast, as in our recollection, 2012 was a boom year for OCTG supply.

bigstock--D-illustration--Coming----44512648

Susan Murphy writes:

 

We took an informal poll across the supply chain this month to examine the OCTG outlook for the balance of the year: “the good, the bad and the ugly.” The objective was to determine if the deck is stacked in favor of or against OCTG. Our read: the odds are that the remaining six months of this high-stakes “game” of OCTG will pretty much break even with last year. That’s not to say we’re calling the rest of the year a bust by any stretch. Remember, last year in the oil patch was pretty good.

For openers: Barclays 2013 Spending Update forecasts that E&Ps will raise CAPEX 3.4% YoY in the U.S. (-2.4% in Canada) after estimating flat spending for the region earlier this year. Commodity price assumptions are slightly higher than reported in December at $86.50/bbl for WTI oil and $3.62/MMBtu (HH) for nat gas, but still well below current prices and averages for the year. And while it may not be an “ace in the hole,” it’s worth noting that only 6% of E&Ps expect their CAPEX to decline next year. Bottom line: the capital is in place – the incentive to put it downhole may come with some strings attached.

We evaluate potential “wild cards” and show our hand revealing our best prognosis for 2013 consumption and rig counts in our June Report. Game on!“

 

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New US Report Supports Enbridge Position on Safety
Posted by: In: OCTG News, Oil & Gas Industry, Oil Pipe 04 Jul 2013 Comments: 0 Tags: , , ,

A senior official from Enbridge says that a brand new report from the U.S. supports its previous position on the inherent safety of moving diluted oil sands bitumen at high speeds through its Line 9 pipeline, from Sarnia, Ontario to Montreal.   NRC (National Research Council) has found no evidence of chemical or physical properties in diluted bitumen to make it more likely than other crude oils to cause a release from Enbridge’s pipelines.

Enbridge Pipeline

Paul Morden, Sun Media, writes:

Enbridge spokesperson Ken Hall said the report supports what the company has said since announcing plans to seek approval to reverse the pipeline.

He added other studies have drawn the same conclusion about the risk from bitumen.

The council, part of a group of private non-profit institutions that advise the U.S. government on science, technology and health policy, reviewed pipeline leak statistics and consulted experts on pipeline failure mechanisms, and solicited comments from the public.

“There is nothing extraordinary about pipeline shipments of diluted bitumen to make them more likely than other crude oils to cause releases,” said Mark Barteau, chemical engineering professor at the University of Michigan, and chair of the committee that wrote the report.

Hall said Enbridge is sharing the report with municipal politicians along the route of Line 9 who have asked questions about the safety of moving oil sands bitumen.

“We’re hoping that it will go some length to satisfy people’s interest in this, and also to alleviate their concerns.”

 

Originally built in 1970, Line 9 was designed to send oil eastward from Sarnia to Montreal until the direction was reversed in the late 1990’s, to carry the then cheaper offshore oil to the west.   Enbridge received permission and approval to return Line 9 to its original direction of flow for the sections from Hamilton to Montreal and is now waiting for approval for the remainder.

Via The Observer

Q4 2012 Tallys Update Available
Posted by: In: Pipe & Tube Products, Quarterly Releases, Tallys 27 Sep 2012 Comments: 0 Tags: , , , , ,

The Tallys Team at NWSP is preparing for yet another release of Tallys 512. Our Q4 2012 update, scheduled for deployment on October 1st will include enhancements and patches that users on maintenance can benefit from straight away. Use of Tallys is varied from facility to facility and our October release includes something exciting and new for everyone, regardless of which modules are most heavily utilized in their business. These most significant improvements are highlighted below. Click on the link next to any of these listed features for a description of its value and how it can benefit your operation.

ATP data standards: We have added a new Admin accessible preference to enable ATP data standards. All Alberta Tubular Products’ stocking points with an up to date version of Tallys512 will have this new toggle which enables a read in of all standard ATP accepted pipe specifications. Not only will this ensure that only the accepted ATP definition set is available for selection when building an ATP rack, but it will also prevent omission of important data entry when posting an ATP tally. This feature will only have an effect on racks and tallies not yet created.

 

Added Boolean search criteria for Shipments: We have added new search criteria to the ‘shipments find window’, making it easier to find the shipment(s) you are looking for. It is now possible to find an equipment movement by searching for its Delivery Ticket, Rig, PO# or AFE.

 

New BOL specific legal statements: The newly added preference 1400 allows entry of a Declared Value statement and or a Maximum Liability statement which would appear on all printed Bills of Lading. This feature applies to both master and standard BOLs.

 

new ‘Get remote Help’ option: While this feature is not new to our Q4 release, it was not available in 2011 and is an enhancement which users have expressed overwhelming appreciation for. This option expedites the online support process by enabling a user who would like to share control of their computer with NWSP’s support team to launch a new online meeting from our file menu rather than having to open an internet browser and navigate to the site manually.

 

User available backups on the fly: While this feature is not new to our Q4 release, it did not exist in 2011. TALLYS512 now has a backup option accessible to all users from the file menu. This makes on the fly backup available to any user prior to an intensive change.

 

‘Post’ reminder : no important work left behind: When a user quits TALLYS and signs out at the end of their work day, the system will show them a count of tallies and shipments that have been saved but not yet posted in their database. This is only a reminder and will not prevent the user from exiting the system.

 

FTP batching of ATP accessory movements: Since July of this year, ATP stocking points running TALLYS512 have had the ability to batch all ATP specific accessory shipments to ATP’s head office automatically on a daily scheduled basis. This functionality has seen some growing pains but is now looking rock solid for our Q4 release.

 

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