TPI April 2009

Pipeline products OCTG goods and

Photo – Superlit Boru Sanayi AS, Turkey – see page 52

Oil Country Tubular Goods The OCTG industry entered the 21 st Century after a decade of streamlining. Consolidation had taken place in the manufacturing segment. Market-driven forces, favouring only the most productive mills, had brought about an accommodation with imports and better distribution networks. The oil and gas operators, having lost many independents, emerged stronger. Natural gas drilling was a priority of a newly efficient and responsive enterprise. Since the turn of the millennium, the fortunes of the OCTG industry have fluctuated. At the same time, the products of the oil patch — casing, tubing, drill pipe, line pipe, connectors — have undergone the steady development required of wares designed for heavy work in punishing environments. Those environments may also be said to have changed. The oceans are no less turbulent. Bedrock is no less solid. But wells must be sunk deeper and with greater accuracy all the time, in both elements. Raw materials lying farther afield are that much more resistant to exploitation. Deposits of lesser promise are being reevaluated. Reserves once deemed marginal (eg oil shale) must be made to yield. All this must be accomplished by means of cost-effective, ecologically sound methods that justify huge expenditure and Herculean effort. These pages present many of the products and services with which OCTG professionals are meeting the challenge to both the engineering and the commercial segments of the industry.