TPi October 2011

business & market news

Largest ever single order for Butting Stainless steel processing company Butting has won the largest single order in its 230-year history. The order, from Subsea 7, a global leader in seabed-to- surface engineering, construction and services to the offshore industry, is for 84km of clad pipes for the Guará-Lula NE field project in Brazil. challenging conditions: more than 6,000ft below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. The US$1bn SURF (subsea umbilical, riser and flowlines) project awarded to Subsea 7 for four decoupled riser systems to be installed in the Guará-Lula NE is the largest engineering, procurement, installation and commissioning (EPIC) contract awarded to date in Brazil.

demanding conditions of the seabed and around 750ft below the surface of the water, the clad pipes must be fabricated to very strict tolerance standards. For Butting, the order means delivering a total of more than 75km of BuBi pipes and 9km of metallurgically clad pipes. Because of these conditions, the material combination of Grade 450 and Alloy 625 was selected. Before the order was awarded, it was vital to ensure the reel capability of the mechanically clad pipes. Subsea 7 and Butting set up a joint comprehensive programme to develop the technology and demonstrate its suitability. This was accredited last year by independent institutions. These projects will for the first time see the laying of the BuBi pipes by Subsea 7 using the reel-lay process. The mechanically clad pipe was technologically certified by the DNV under DNV RP A-203 for this special use. Production began in Knesebeck in July, and the first pipes are to be delivered in November. H butting GmbH & co KG – Germany info@butting.de www.butting.de

The Guará-Lula NE fields are part of the largest pre-salt oil fields discovered by Petrobras in the Santos basin off the coast of Brazil.

The risers for the production, gas and water supply pipes will be equipped by Subsea 7 from the buoys with BuBi ® pipes and clad pipes from Knesebeck. As the Butting pipes will be used in the

Exploration will take place in the coming years, under extremely technically

Butting will produce more than 84km of clad pipes for the project

Westlake Chemical – operating developments Westlake Chemical Corporation has announced that its North American Pipe Corporation subsidiary has shut down its Springfield, Kentucky PVC pipe production facility in an effort to reduce costs and optimise production operations as a result of excess capacity in the PVC pipe market. The Springfield site is one of the company’s smallest pipe facilities. to negatively impact second quarter 2011 pre-tax earnings by approximately $4mn. insurance recoveries to offset a majority of this impact in future periods. The unit has returned to normal operations. Westlake Chemical Corporation is an international manufacturer and supplier of petrochemicals, polymers and building products, with headquarters in Houston, Texas. The company’s range of products includes ethylene, polyethylene, styrene, propylene, caustic, VCM, PVC resin and PVC building products, including pipe. During the second quarter of 2011 the company’s Lake Charles, Louisiana facility was also negatively impacted by an unscheduled outage caused by a weather-related power supply failure from a third party power provider, resulting in reduced production and repairs at an ethylene unit. The company estimates that the lost production, repair costs and other expenses resulting from this event will lower second quarter 2011 pre-tax earnings by approximately $10mn, but expected proceeds from Westlake chemical corporation – USA www.westlake.com Customers currently being serviced from Springfield will not experience any supply disruption and will now be served through North American Pipe’s other PVC pipe plants. Impairment and shutdown-related costs are expected

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Tube PrOducTs InTernaTIOnal October 2011

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