Christopher Langrill, Tenaris Commercial Director in the UK, looks back on 2021 and shares how Tenaris has consolidated its position in the region while looking to advance the energy transition.
-How was 2021 for Tenaris in the UK?
In 2021 we consolidated our position in the region. Following a 2020 with record sales, 2021 has been a solid year in terms of performance. We´ve achieved some significant milestones and couldn’t feel prouder of the overall satisfaction expressed by our customers such as Harbour Energy and Ithaca Energy among others.
-Which were the most important milestones of the year?
We have successfully supported several HP/HT appraisal and development projects drilled throughout the year by different customers in Central North Sea. These all used heavy-wall, sour service casing with Dopeless® connections.
The wells faced various drilling challenges but our mills and service centre in Aberdeen was able to take swift action and get products ready and delivered with very short notice to ensure these projects were successful. Our field services team was always on hand to make sure everything was running smoothly offshore and whenever they provided support, the customers’ feedback has been positive.
We also implemented a Pipe Tracer® trial with one of our main customers. This is a mobile application that provides customers immediate access to the unique identification of each pipe such as the technical specs, provides digital tallies and offers product running guidelines that can be downloaded.
Originally, the trial was meant to cover one casing size but, due to its success, it was extended to cover every pipe run in that particular well. The feedback from the offshore team was very positive and the customer highlighted the improvements they got in terms of safety, convenience, and data accuracy. The next stage will be to roll it out on a larger scale to multiple wells and to fully automate our business systems, using Pipe Tracer® as one of the main building blocks.
-2021 was also a year of local improvements for the Aberdeen plant. Can you share how these investments will improve Tenaris’ operations?
During 2021 we made significant improvements to our local facilities that demonstrate Tenaris’s commitment to the UK and help us improve our efficiency, safety and productivity and be better positioned for the energy transition.
We´ve re-worked the layout of our Aberdeen plant, the signage, and the arrangement of the traffic flow. It’s been a significant investment and also a good indicator of how things can improve when you take a fresh look at safety.
We´ve also invested in new threading machines that are faster and more efficient, and this is key for better serving the Middle East and the local markets. Lastly, we´ve made improvements to our business systems, including automation on the quality side and automation on the sales and processing side. These are all big changes to manage but they certainly bring the plant into a modern way of working, with improved traceability and efficiencies.
-How is the market reacting to Tenaris’s decarbonisation strategy?
This year has marked a very significant change in the industry: the environment and the energy transition have been front and centre of the oil and gas industry’s plans. Most of our customers have started or intensified their efforts to clean up offshore operations. As suppliers, we are committed to communicating our carbon footprint clearly. The commercial implications are still not evident, but we expect to see the industry factoring in the emissions produced by its suppliers in the near future. As operators continue to repurpose old gas fields for storing CO2, there is a genuine interest in Tenaris products for low carbon projects such as the new solutions developed for Carbon Capture and Storage applications.
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