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OCTG &
pipeline
products
OCTG and pipeline products run to size and scale, with the iconic
pictures to prove it. An oilfield worker standing inside a section of
pipeline – and dwarfed by it – in the Sahara Desert. An offshore drilling
rig the size of a small city in the North Sea. Huge water pipes servicing
the Marcellus Shale gas wells in Pennsylvania, fracture pumps in their
hundreds lined up nearby.
But the very heft of these behemoths invites thoughts of the scope
of the problem if there should be any malfunction. This in turn
leads to altogether human-scale concerns: for meticulous design,
uncompromising construction, exhaustive testing. The professionals
who provide the equipment of energy exploration and development
had to prove themselves masters of a great many small things before
they dared go big.
Outsize machinery and high stakes go together but they do not go it
alone. The origin story of every drilling rig that dominates a landscape
is composed of countless episodes of small challenges met, analysed
and overcome.
Photo: Kingfisher Industrial Ltd, UK
(see page 48)