TPi July 2010

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60 Tube Products International July 2010
Demand for pipelines rising worldwide
The demand for oil and gas is rising worldwide, as is
the demand for pipeline pipe materials. Studies carried
out by the Organisation of Oil Exporting Countries
OPEC and the US Energy Information Administration
before the current economic crisis forecast oil and gas
consumption to go up by 16% and 29%, respectively,
by 2015.
Last year the London-based steel business consultancy
CRU foresaw double-digit growth rates for global pipe
demand, assuming that 60% of the demand would be
accounted for by large-diameter pipes measuring over
20" in diameter. Accordingly, the demand for line pipes
was said to go up by 78% in Eastern Europe and by
over 100% in the Middle East and Asia between 2007
and 2011. Altogether, CRU forecast an increase for line
pipes from 14.9 million tons in 2007 to 24.2 million tons
in 2011. In October 2008, Steel Tube News announced
that demand for oil and gas pipelines would go up to
27,000km in 2007 and to 32,000 from 2009, and that
demand for welded pipes would rise from 13 million
tons to 15 million tons over the same period. Worldwide,
almost 230,000km of pipeline were under construction
or planned in autumn 2008.
Pipelines – connecting worlds
The high demand for oil and gas line pipes for the energy
sector was mainly responsible for bringing global steel
pipe production in 2008 up to the previous year’s record
level of approximately 120 million tons. In the segment
of large pipes (welded pipes over 406.4mm diameter)
production was estimated to grow by 1% to 18 million
tons. Future opportunities for business growth in the
segment of longitudinally welded large-diameter pipes
are therefore foreseen especially in regions with fast
growing energy needs and those with the relevant raw
materials because of the high demand for high-quality
pipes in demanding dimensions.
Due to the problematic situation on financial markets,
an increasing number of projects in the line pipe sector
were postponed in the first quarter of 2009, while in
exploration there was no major incentive to develop
new oil and gas fields because of the low oil prices.
Nevertheless, the situation was largely stable for large-
diameter pipes, predominantly thanks to long-term
projects in the energy sector that had already been
initiated in 2007 and 2008. Of course, signs of a
slow in demand could be seen here, too. Large pipe
manufacturers posted a lower order intake than in the
same period of the previous year.