TPi May 2015

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)