TPi November 2021

temperature. The physical pressure generated on the material by rolling the coil from a thicker bar also increases toughness. However, waiting for the coil to cool takes time and, in the high cost environment of a steel or coil mill, that can represent a significant expense. Tata Steel’s transfer bar cooling facility cools the bar as it is transferred to the finishing mill. This allows the company to finish at the lower temperature and from an increased thickness to significantly improve body toughness in the final product. The continued commitment to through supply chain quality is critical, and ‘right first time’ has never been more important than in the current environment. Again, an integrated steel route can allow lessons in greater efficiency to be learned and shared to drive improvements and ensure ‘right first time’ is consistently achieved. Greater digitalisation and collaboration Increased digitalisation is another area that can improve the line pipe supply chain. One aspect of this is in the adoption of existing processes already used in other industry verticals. For example Tata Steel has been developing a tag and track system, supported by a cloud-based database, to locate products in its construction portfolio. Companies in the oil & gas industry are increasingly looking to adopt digital systems such as this to increase supply chain efficiency. The digital arena is another area where greater supply chain collaboration will be important. This will hopefully lead to a streamlining of solutions and avoid an excess of (expensive) system developments, which are unable to communicate with each other. As part of the enhanced digitalisation drive, Tata Steel has extended the number of laser end measurement devices into its finishing lines. The devices provide full geometry of the end of pipe to support lay contractors or fabricators and are particularly useful where enhanced requirements are required. Data from each system can be run through algorithms to help end match the pipes. It can also be used to understand incoming pipe geometry and the implications on efficiency and offshore welding times. Traditionally such data would be sent by the pipe manufacturer to the construction contractor, who would either process it in a given format or send it ‘as is’ to the welding contractor to establish a schedule. However, laser end measurement and associated algorithms mean pipe manufacturers can now feed the processed data live to the contractor, enabling offshore scheduling to be determined, pipe-by-pipe, and ending as

Some of these demands are driven by technical requirements, such as the decision to develop a sour hydrocarbon field, which had previously been put on hold, as other ‘easier’ hydrocarbons in the operator’s portfolio were possible to develop. It is important to support this portfolio rebalance and develop steels that can operate optimally in such conditions. Tata Steel is developing HFI products to replace seamless pipes initially for mild sour service but potentially also for full sour service, and the business decision has been well received by customers. Changing market/societal requirements and the energy transition are at the forefront of the key drivers for modern industry. It is therefore important for companies to develop products and services that can enable greater industrial decarbonisation, such as carbon capture infrastructure and the development of hydrogen networks. Another key demand driver is industry conservatism, which has been exacerbated due to the oil price and a resulting desire by operators to reduce their risk profile. This approach to acceptable risk profile (or conservatism) can be seen in the increased demand for additional, and not always essential, specification requirements. For example, for fields where there is a possibility of water ingress that may, in turn, lead to a sour reservoir, some operators are reducing the risk profile of their project by simply specifying sour service steels. A key to ensuring that the industry is not becoming inefficient is dialogue and technical exchange to ensure that specifications are being driven by valid technical requirements. Tougher, stronger, colder For lower temperature steels, a main consideration is welding excellence. Ensuring the optimum steel is key, but a considerable time has been spent on the welding process itself, particularly in enhancing edge preparation, the geometry of the weld and optimising weld heat treatment. Various big data techniques are used to drive capability through the analysis of thousands of parameters in steel, coil and pipe manufacture. This work has delivered significant increases in low temperature toughness in the weldline – a key requirement, particularly in higher-pressure pipelines. Another example of the benefits of an agile and integrated supply chain was Tata Steel’s investment in cooling equipment at its coil mill to provide a significant benefit to its pipe mill output. The cooling aspect is extremely important in generating body material toughness. It is possible to ‘roll in’ that toughness if the coil is rolled through the final finishing at a lower

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November 2021 TUBE PRODUCTS INTERNATIONAL