Offshore staff
HOUSTON – Sandvik will supply stainless steel umbilical tubes for Petrobras’ Mero oil field project in the presalt Santos basin offshore Brazil.
According to the company, field developments in the region more typically employ thermoplastic hose umbilicals.
For this contract, Sandvik will supply more than 500 km (310 mi) of super duplex Sandvik SAF 2507 stainless steel umbilical tubes encapsulated by Prysmian Group. Mero is managed by the Libra Consortium, a partnership between Petrobras, Total, Shell Brasil, CNPC, and CNOOC.
The initial phase, Mero 1, calls for 17 wells in a water depth of around 2,000 m (6,562 ft).
According to Sandvik, deeper offshore fields require more robust subsea equipment to withstand higher pressures, corrosion and erosion. SAF 2507 is an austenitic-ferritic stainless steel said to provide strong resistance to stress corrosion cracking, pitting and crevice corrosion, erosion corrosion and corrosion fatigue, with high mechanical strength and good weldability features.
In addition, the company claims, umbilical seamless tubes made from this material provide stronger structural reinforcement in smaller sizes compared to less durable thermoplastic technology.
03/03/2020
