Russia's largest oil and gas pipe producer TMK has said that, considering the recent raw material cost pressure, pipe prices in the US appear to have stabilized and should not register any significant decline until the end of the current year.
Accordingly, both the Russian and US markets are expected in the second half of the year to continue benefiting from encouraging oil prices, whether in Western Siberian or Texan fields, while drilling activity is expected to remain robust and support OCTG consumption in TMK's core markets.
Given the success of ULTRA products in the North American markets and in order to meet the high demand from shale operators, in the second half of the year TMK plans to add another ULTRA premium threading line at its North American tubular product manufacturing subsidiary TMK IPSCO. Previously, a new ULTRA premium connection threading facility was opened in May 2010 in Brookfield, Ohio.
In the first half of 2010, TMK's American segment tripled its sales volumes year on year to 412,300 mt, due to the recovery in the US drilling market which began in the second half of 2009, leading to a 116.5 percent year-on-year increase in its H1 2010 revenue to $620.2 million.