March 18, 2013. Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK), one of the world’s largest OCTG manufacturers, shipped its first batch of heat-insulated tubing made of super-chrome 13CrS steel to the consumers who will use it at Gazprom’s Bovanenkovskoye oil and gas condensate deposit in Yamal Peninsula. The batch amounted to 500 running meters of tubing, TMK’s press officer reports.

Heat-insulated tubing is characterized by enhanced heat-insulating properties and is meant for use as the first section of the oil well tubing at oil deposits located in the Polar North. The tubing is assembled out of two pipes, one inside the other, with some multi-layer insulation material in between that creates hard vacuum and reduces heat loss. This ensures the necessary thermal characteristics and prevents the thawing of permafrost around the oil well and therefore the well deformation.

A production facility for his kind of tubing was launched at Sinara Pipe Plant (SinTZ, a member of Pipe Metallurgical Company) in 2011 under the project on scientific and technological cooperation between TMK and Gazprom in 2012-2015. Experts from the O&G institute called RosNITI, TMK Premium Service, and Gazprom VNIIGAZ took part in the project. The first experimental batch of tubing was delivered to Gazprom’s Bovanenkovskoye oil and gas condensate deposit in early 2012 and was successfully tested and installed within the well.