INTERVIEW: Sandvik to Focus on West African and Middle Eastern Markets

Sandvik is a global engineering Group that employs 50,000 people commitment to enhancing customer productivity, profitability and safety.

Sandvik’s operations are organized into five business areas responsible for research and development (R&D), production and sales of their respective products.

The company is a developer and producer of advanced stainless steels, special alloys, titanium and other materials.

Subsea World News spoke to Phil Cherrie, Regional Sales and Marketing Manager Oil & Gas, for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), about company’s current and future projects in the industry.

Could you introduce your company to our readers?

 
Sandvik Materials Technology, a division of the Sandvik Group, is a developer and producer of advanced stainless steels, special alloys, titanium and other high performance materials. The company is headquartered in Sweden and currently employs 50,000 of which Sandvik Materials Technology employs 7,000.

What subsea companies have you worked with, and do you have any projects that you would like to single out?

Sandvik has an extensive offering of products and services and is active from drilling through to completion. The product range includes coiled tubing, umbilical tubing, control lines, wirelines, subsea piping as well as downhole casing and production tubing. A recent example of new product development and application is the first installation of super duplex coiled tubing for IGLS (Inverted Gas-Lift System) in the North Sea. Chosen for its strength and corrosion resistance this is a fixed installation well intervention product used to rejuvenate older wells on Statfjord A platform.

Where do you see the most potential on the market right now?

 
We see interesting activity in geographical locations such as West Africa, the Middle East, as well as Asia Pacific. We continue to offer our broad portfolio, from drilling through to completion products such as control line and chemical injection line. Due to our advanced material know how and materials for critical and demanding environments, areas such as the Middle East and North Africa, with high H2S environments are particularly in focus.

Do you plan to launch some new products or cooperations in the near future?

Sandvik had the first trial of its seamless Super Duplex Coiled Tubing in the North Sea last year. Not only a first for the technology but for the industry, globally. The gas lift technology is aimed at the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) market, with the super flex tubing being permanently installed to rejuvenate old fields where corrosion risk has increased over time.

The recent acquisition of Downhole Products (a Varel International Energy Services company), based in Aberdeen, will expand the product portfolio of the company. The collaboration will combine workforces with Sandvik and Downhole Products’ staff working from the same office.

Sandvik also has a long standing alliance with Tenaris, again strengthening the offering of the company. The agreement, for the next five years, will bring together Sandvik’s corrosion resistant alloy tubes and TenarisHydril premium connections with Dopeless technology. Sandvik can offer a complete package and will mean that the alliance will be able to support challenging oil and gas exploration and production environments, such as high-pressure, high-temperature and deep water.

Has the current market slowdown impacted your company and how?

Sandvik aims to maintain a strategic position across the whole energy sector. Due to the diverse range of sectors in the Sandvik group the current climate has had a larger impact on certain areas compared with others. The company is flexible to adapt and serve changing supply chains with regional stock and stocking points around the globe. This comes at a time where companies are looking to cut costs and streamline processes and Sandvik are supporting our customers in this regard.

Will we see you at the Offshore Energy 2015 exhibition and conference in Amsterdam?

Sandvik will not be attending the Offshore Energy 2015 exhibition and conference. For the rest of this year, Sandvik will be participating in three conferences in Houston – SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE) 2015, Deep Offshore Technology (DOT) International 2015 and Offshore Well Intervention Conference, Gulf of Mexico (OWI) 2015 as well as OTC Brasil.

Would you like to add something?

 
In line with the Offshore Europe conference theme ‘Investing in the next generation’, Sandvik has an established graduate scheme and recently 11 graduates from around the world began their career with the company. In addition to the scheme the company has an alliance with the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Sandvik also offers a research and development service and provides facilities for compatibility testing, materials testing and make recommendations from locations around the globe.

 
Subsea World News Staff