SAUDI ARABIA'S Arabian Pipes Company (APC) continues to secure important contracts in the Middle East.

The latest is a contract to supply more than 110km of longitudinally welded, high pressure, American Petroleum Institute (API)-certified steel pipes to Egypt's Petrojet.

APC said it clinched the deal in the face of intense competition from several specialised international companies.

As part of Egypt's current petroleum development plan, the Bani Suwaif-Attibbain products pipeline marks the latest close cooperation between APC and major oil and gas operating companies in the country. APC has supplied pipes for land and marine applications to many of Egypt's oil and gas operators.

APC started commercial production of 6 to 20" longitudinally-welded ERW steel pipes in 1996 and has since grown into one of the Middle East's major pipe manufacturers, supplying markets both within Saudi Arabia (57 per cent of output) and key export markets.

Now the company is investing in new facilities to reinforce this leading position. Plans are underway for a new 16" to 60" state-of-the-art Submerged Arc Welded (SAW) longitudinal pipe facility in Dammam, Saudi Arabia in a joint venture with a well-known European firm.

By March, APC will also integrate a fusion-bonded epoxy (FBE) coating line into its operations. The new line will be as a joint venture with a Hong Kong-based corrosion-coating specialist Yadong Anticorrosive Coating Ltd.

And a third project will see APC install a fifth annealer for seam heat treatment at its existing Electric Resistance Welded (ERW) facility in Riyadh.

By the third quarter of this year APC will have a One Stop facility for casing pipe in a joint venture with a qualified company to provide a full line of casing products, in particular 18 5/8" casing for Saudi Aramco.

The upgrades are part of a proactive approach of introducing new products to the company's range.

APC meets stringent Saudi Aramco specifications for ERW pipe (SAMSS-332), and was the first company to be approved for the specification in the year 2000. APC is now gearing up to meet SAMSS-333 accreditation for high pressure gas, wet and sour service.

The new specifications being demanded by Saudi Aramco bring together the current 'world best' manufacturing practices and methods and the highest testing requirements applicable for line pipe.

The specifications also break new ground in the assurance of quality by stipulating that all pipe is manufactured using qualified parameters which are proven to give a manufacturing window which ensures an optimum weld, and that continuous electronic process control and statistical process control in place guarantees that any pipe that is produced outside these qualified parameters is automatically identified and immediately segregated.

APC's existing facilities comprise a strip Edge Milling machine, which covers the full range of APC products from 6" to 20" in diameter and 3.2mm to 16mm wall thickness in grades up to X70. The Edge Milling machine enables APC to serve major oil and gas companies for their severe pipe applications, providing uniform metal flow angles, improved hardness results on the weld area and reduced instances of weld defects.

The company currently operates four seam annealers. The additional fifth 500kW capacity annealer will increase the total seam heat treatment capacity to 2500 kW, and the additional heating power will allow APC to perform double annealing and also increase productivity.

The improved metallurgical structure due to the additional heating ensures that even on products with high wall thickness the weld seam is homogenous with the base metal. The resulting weld area has consistent through-hardness, reduced grain size and improved impact results and meets the most stringent testing requirements employed for quality line pipe, according to the company.

APC recently upgraded its automatic Ultrasonic Inspection systems with the assistance of its long-term supplier and world leader in its field, Krautkramer (Germany).

All of its state of the art machines are now based around the Krautkramer USIP20 and are equipped with automatic alarms, paint sprays and recording facilities.