Exploration • Drilling • Field Services
have been built in Korea,” says Drury. “Similarly in Southeast Asia there is a shift toward deeper waters, and at the same time countries in the region are looking to develop more locally based supply chains.” To capture these opportunities, suppliers
including Trelleborg is setting up production in these new markets. But while the opportunities are plentiful, the competition is tougher than ever. “Tere are a lot of building projects ongoing, but
people are being very aggressive to win and everyone is very conscious about margins,” says Tor Hegg Eriksen, Business Unit President for Trelleborg’s business that focuses on the offshore industry. “Tis seems a bit of an anomaly for a business that is making so much money on the operator side. But there is not really a direct competitor that is able to offer such a broad product portfolio from as many locations as Trelleborg.” Industry observers see an intriguing period ahead, with expected regulatory changes on safety, national oil companies becoming more outward looking, the rise of Asia as a supplier and consumer, and increased investment in deepwater drilling. “Tere are changes going on, and it is an
interesting environment,” says Eriksen. “But with our core competencies, our ability to work on a global scale and our extensive innovation work, Trelleborg is well positioned to see what happens and to jump on the opportunities as they arise.”
On the rise With the deepwater discoveries off its Atlantic coast representing a third of all worldwide oil discoveries in the past five years, Brazil is widely touted as the next oil giant. Petrobras, which has grown to become the world’s third-largest oil and gas company by market capitalisation, will be investing some USD 224 billion by 2014, much of it in platforms, rigs and other infrastructure. To supply this booming market, Trelleborg is
investing heavily in Brazil, acquiring an existing factory and building another on a greenfield site. “Brazil is becoming hugely important,” says Brian McSharry, President of Trelleborg’s US business that focuses on the offshore industry. “We have studied the market conditions and recognised the significant potential, and as a result we have established a major presence there.” Te new facility, located in Brazil’s oil capital,
Macaé, will manufacture a wide range of polymer- based solutions for offshore topside and subsea oil and gas exploration. “Tere is no other manufacturing on this scale in the country,” says McSharry. “We will be able to reach near capacity relatively quickly, and the size
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of the facility is such that if we need to expand, we can.”
Te second factory, at Santana de Parnaiba, was acquired in April 2011, together with a nipple hose technology for transferring oil from floating production, storage and offloading vessels and terminals. “Tis product completes our product and solution portfolio,” says Managing Director Xavier- Alexandre Delineau. Another line at the factory will produce printing blankets to cater to the growing Latin American printing market. Petrobras has set aggressive objectives on local content for its projects, so the factories are important for Trelleborg to access Brazil’s oil and gas market. “One of our goals is to have two world-class factories serving the global offshore and marine offloading business, and we have a plan in place to sustain and develop our leadership position,” Delineau says.
Explosive decompression failure When engineers specify a seal material for an application, they have to consider such things as working temperatures, pressure and compatibility with chemicals. In oil and gas applications there are other critical criteria that must be considered, such as explosive decompression.
Fig. 2. Trelleborg O-rings.
Inherently, elastomer seals contain voids. Gas or gas mixtures in contact with elastomer surfaces during oil and gas processing are absorbed and saturate elastomer seals. At high pressure this absorbed gas is in a compressed state. When external system pressure is reduced, either rapidly or over a relatively short period of time, the compressed gas nucleates, inflating at the voids within the elastomer.
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