Seamless type segment to witness significant growth

The COVID-19 outbreak in 1Q20 had delayed pipeline projects due to imposed lockdown restrictions. Also, it led to a decrease in gas demand due to the decline in electricity consumption, and travel restrictions also negatively affected oil consumption.

Seamless type segment to witness a significant growth

Seamless line pipes are small parts of a long pipeline manufactured or made after heating and restructuring steel into round-shaped solid rods known as billets. These billets are further heated and then pierced by a bullet-shaped piercer, over which the steel gets stretched and takes the shape of a hollow pipe without having any seams on its surface.

These types of line pipes are usually suitable for high-pressure applications such as in the oil and gas midstream sector, refineries, chemical industry, etc. Moreover, the general application of such line pipes depends on their thickness. Thus, high-pressure applications are required to have higher thickness.

Several advantages of using these line pipes include their ability to improve the pressure withstood by the pipeline, uniformity of shape required to install other equipment between two-line pipes, and greater strength under load. However, despite having several advantages, these line pipes also have an equal number of disadvantages that generally occur in them during production. These disadvantages include high cost, residual stresses caused by unstable cooling creating deformation, and uneven thickness and pipe width after cooling.

Moreover, in 2020, the Middle Eastern region was the largest producer of crude oil, producing 1297.3 t, which accounted for 31.1% of the global crude oil production. The increasing demand and production of oil and gas in the region in recent years gave rise to several seamless pipeline projects. For instance, in March 2021, TMK supplied seamless steel pipes to the Sharjah National Oil Corporation (SNOC) to transport Mahani Gas production to SNOC Sajaa Gas Plant in Sharjah, UAE. The 16 in. line pipes weighed 5000 t in total, and they were used to construct 22 km of a pipeline to transfer corrosive natural gas from the Mahani field to gas processing plants. Such projects transporting corrosive fluids or gas in the oil and gas industry are expected to propel the market growth for seamless line pipes during the forecast period.

Saudi Arabia to dominate the market

Saudi Arabia also has the world's fifth-largest estimated shale gas reserve. Thus, it has great potential for the country to replicate North America's unconventional reserves development growth. The increasing exploitation of unconventional reserves is expected to drive the demand for line pipes in multiple gatherings and treatment stations.

By 2028, Saudi Aramco plans to produce 0.65 billion m³/d of natural gas and is expected to target unconventional gas reserves in North Arabia, the South Ghawar, and the Jafurah Basin, East of Ghawar.

Saudi Aramco and Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) plan to set up a joint oil-to-chemicals project that produces chemicals and base oils directly from 20 million tpy of crude oil. It is expected that the facility is likely to be completed by 2028, thus, witnessing the significant application of line pipes.

With up-gradation and expansion projects in refineries like SASREF, Petro Rabigh, and Jubail and the launching of the Jizan refinery, the deployment of line pipes in Saudi Arabia is expected to increase considerably.

In December 2021, Aramco announced that it had signed a US$15.5 billion lease and leaseback deal involving its gas pipeline network in Saudi Arabia with a consortium led by BlackRock Real Assets and Hassana Investment Company.

With increasing gas production to 119 000 million m³ in 2020, the demand for line pipes is growing considerably. Additionally, with new refining projects, Saudi Arabia is expected to dominate the oil and gas line pipe market in the Middle Eastern region.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/special-reports/04072022/seamless-type-segment-to-witness-significant-growth/