Abakan receives US$ 2.75 million to establish pipe facility

Abakan Inc., has received a US$ 2.75 million funding commitment form Alberta's Ministry of Innovation and Advanced Education (IAE) and Western Economic Diversification Canada (WD) for an 18 month collaborative effort to establish a prototype demonstration facility for developing, testing and commercialising wear-resistant clad pipe and components. This move marks the company's entry into the enormous Alberta oilsands market.

Improvements in wear resistance are expected to make a significant impact in reducing losses due to maintenance and downtime while increasing productivity in oilsands and other mining applications. 

The Alberta oilsands have proven reserves estimated at more than 169 billion bbls, making it one of the world’s largest oil resources. Much of the oil is extracted by mining and the use of hydro-transport pipelines to carry the oil laden bitumen from the mining site to the up-graders and refiners, and subsequently to return the waste sand and rock back to the mining sites to fill in the pits that were mined.

The cost of maintenance of these hydro-transport pipeline and the associated downtime in Alberta is estimated at more than US$ 10 billion annually. According to the Materials and Reliability in Oil Sands (MARIOS) consortium in Alberta, this figure is expected to increase significantly as production expands in the coming years.

Alberta’s Energy Resources Conservation Board expects output from the province’s oilsands to double to 3.8 million bpd by 2022, from the 1.9 million bpd in 2012. Therefore, this project is an important initiative aimed a reducing these enormous losses associated with that downtime.

“Our objective in Alberta is to fast-track the commercialisation of our CermaClad™ long-life, wear-resistant clad pipes and components,” said Abakan Chief Executive Officer, Robert Miller. “Once our products are adopted in Alberta, we anticipate acceptance for mining applications around the globe. Currently, pipes have to be rotated every three to four months and are replaced every 12 - 15 months. We intend to increase the life of these pipes and components using a combination of our advanced materials and high-speed large-area coating technology.”

“The oil majors that mine the oilsands in Alberta have primarily been using the same two coating materials for the past 40 years, tungsten-carbide and chrome-carbide, to protect their hydro-transport pipe,” continued Miller. “Our wear-resistant clad products have shown two to four times improvement in wear and corrosion resistance in laboratory tests, compared to weld overlays currently in use, at costs that are lower than currently available alternatives.”

“Producers are looking to extend the life of carbon steel transport pipes with harder, tougher coatings that protect them from the abrasiveness and high acidity of the tar-like bituminous oilsands. CermaClad wear-resistant clad products that will be developed through this collaborative effort with NAIT can provide that economically viable, long-term solution,” concluded Miller.

Adapted from press release by Hannah Priestley-Eaton

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/12032014/abakan_receives_us_275_million_to_establish_pipe_facility/