Japanese steelmaker JFE Steel Corporation has announced that it has developed the world's first API X80-grade high-frequency-welded (HFW) steel pipe with thickness of 25.4mm. JFE Steel also announced that it has received the first two commercial orders for its uniquely thick HFW pipe.
The pipe is being manufactured at a refurbished 26-inch HFW steel pipe mill within the company's Chita Works. The API X80-grade means the pipe's minimum yield strength is 555 MPa.
The orders for the new 25.4 mm thick HFW steel pipe were placed by Dril-Quip Inc. and GE Oil & Gas, two of the world's leading manufacturers of oil and natural gas drilling equipment. Shipments to both customers will take place this spring.
According to JFE Steel, as drilling operations for oil and natural gas expand around the world, oil companies are drilling into and pumping from increasingly deep seabeds, requiring them to use steel pipes with extra-strong, extra-thick walls capable of withstanding very high pressures to support drilling operations.