Research

Forecasts and market analysis based on price assessments from Fastmarkets MB and Fastmarkets AMM

Change font size:   

June 2018 | Seamless Steel Tube & Pipe


A nickel for your sour fields?


Historically, the use of CRAs has correlated closely with the development of offshore fields, albeit with a bias towards the regions producing higher Sulphur content hydrocarbons. At this stage of the industry cycle there are signals that there may be a change in the typical regional relationships between well footage drilled and CRA requirements due to the relative prevalence of sour gas and higher temperature projects.

Corrosion resistant alloy (CRA) OCTG is back in demand. The supply chain is preparing for an uptick in deliveries as a growing proportion of field developments require high quality downhole tubulars. Sour gas fields and high pressure high temperature (HPHT) wells typically require stainless, duplex or Nickel alloys to reliably transport production from reservoir to surface facilities, and these field developments are growing as a proportion across the industry.

From Buckskin in the US Gulf of Mexico to Dongfang in the South China Sea, the backlog of projects under construction that will drive higher quality steel demand is growing. These are combined with major project expansions, such as Tengiz, and tens of other sour gas projects approaching the final investment decision (FID) stage in...

ACCESS RESTRICTED

You must be a paid subscriber to view the full content.
Content over 60 days old can only be accessed by subscribers.
Call +44(0)20 7779 8000 with your credit card details or subscribe online.


SUBSCRIBE


Receive unlimited access to all current and archive content going back to 2008 including downloadable pricing data and forecasts. Plus download the latest issue as soon as it’s published.

Subscribe


Already subscribed?