The scope and size of the pipeline management and maintenance market is steadily growing, as pipeline integrity solutions are being viewed as critical for optimally operating the company’s assets, while reducing the risk of interruption to the supply of material. With the recent advancements on many fronts of the automation industry, various major pipeline service providers have jumped into the fray, to offer cost-effective solutions to help pipeline operators manage their pipeline network assets efficiently.
Operating pipelines effectively is also vital to the users of the pipeline, across the supply chain, from oil and gas producers to logistics and transportation players to refiners. The most significant operating cost covers the value of energy required to push the fluid through the pipeline. With this, it’s important to manage the pipeline capacity by modelling, proper scheduling, bottleneck analysis, transport capacity optimisation, viscosity profiling, and pump efficiency for a more efficient operations. The other costs cover maintenance and cost of ownership.
The global pipeline infrastructure continues to expand, with new construction forecasted to grow at 3.4% between 2016-19, with most rapid growth in the Middle East and China, as per the Simdex Future Pipeline Projects Worldwide Guide. “We see significant opportunity in the region, especially as the GCC countries focus on greater optimisation of their resources,” Rami Qasem, president and CEO of GE Oil & Gas’ business in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey region, says.
“Another core market is Turkey, which serves as a natural transit hub between the demand-rich west to supply-rich east, and next to the world’s second-largest natural gas market, continental EU. We see strong potential for Turkey to emerge as a hub for the global energy market especially with the (Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline) TANAP project. We are supporting the nation in pipelines and gas storage facilities with the TANAP pipeline and BOTAŞ Tuz Lake gas storage facility, and we are ready to do more,” Qasem reveals.
The pipeline and midstream industry overall is growing steadily in the Middle East in the short and long terms. “The growth is driven by OPEC’s decision to maintain market share on the global oil markets which keeps export at high levels,” Ahmad Nawasrah, ESI sales leader for the MEA region at Emerson Automation Solutions, says. “The other driver is the domestic demand of the Middle East market. The pipeline management market is evolving towards complete pipeline integrity and operation solutions rather than discrete systems, which supports further growth in this segment.”
It is interesting to note that the pipeline safety market size is expected to grow from $5.57bn in 2016 to $8.67bn by 2021, at a compound annual growth rate of 9.3% during the forecast period.
Yet another estimate suggests that the global pipeline leak detection system market for the oil and gas industry by product type, technology and geography is expected to reach $3.2bn by 2023.
The global demand for oil and gas pipeline leak detection market is primarily driven by the growing energy demand. Furthermore, increased global demand for fuel is expected to propel growth in the oil and gas pipeline network around the world. Rapid development of pipeline network increases the risk of oil and gas pipeline leakage; it may further lead to a potential disaster and accidents. Oil and gas pipeline leakages can result in significant revenue loss as well as loss of goodwill to the market players in the pipeline sector. Rise in demand for exploration and production activities around the world is anticipated to boost growth in the global oil and gas pipeline leak detection market.
“The ultimate goal for the industry is zero pipeline failure, all the more critical because the pipelines are set through harsh environments. Operators are therefore focussing on ensuring that safety remains the top priority. They rely on robust data, real-time workforce planning and ready information to optimise the performance,” Qasem says.
