TenarisHydril Blue® Dopeless® connections in Equatorial Guinea
January 13, 2012
The first shipment of casing and tubing arrived at Luba Free Port in mid-August 2011. These products were supplied to optimize the E&P projects of a leading oil and gas company operating in the country.
Tenaris provided 3,500 tons of pipes with TenarisHydril Blue® and Blue® Dopeless® connections for the operator’s 2011-2012 exploration and production campaign in the region. The OCTG contract came following the line pipe agreement signed with the same customer to support their Guinean gas operations.
Before the casing and tubing are shipped to the offshore platform located in the Gulf, the products are stored and inspected in the recently built service yard. Now ready to operate, the yard was constructed in less than a year. It is located 50 kilometers from Malabo city and is owned by Tenaris in joint venture with GEPetrol, Equatorial Guinea’s state oil company.
The new service base enables flexible production schedules and shorter lead times, optimizing customers’ operations. With an open storage area of 9,777 m2, 511 m2 of covered inspection area and a wash bay with a water recycling plant, the yard supplies pipe management services including incoming logistics and storage, demand planning, pipe inspection and field repair, material dispatch, rig returns administration and running assistance.
Equatorial Guinea has an estimated oil reserves of 1.7 billion barrels, 0.14 per cent of the world’s total, and the majority is located in the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea. The country is the third-largest oil exporter in Sub-Saharan Africa after Nigeria and Angola.
To complete the offer of services in the region, the joint venture has also established a commercial office in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea’s capital.