As the global downstream industry shifts towards the Middle East, valves manufacturers are enjoying flourishing demand from petrochemical and refining players from across the region.
This dynamic market has led many companies to introduce new products to meet the requirement of increasingly demanding end-users.
“We are introducing the new Delta Hydraulic Actuated Valve (DHAV), designed to be used in conjunction with Delta valve bonnets to provide open and close control for major brands of API 6A, through conduit reverse acting gate valves fitted to oil and gas wellheads and production flow lines,” says Wesam Swelem, managing director of Delta Doha Corporation.
While some companies are launching new products, others are strengthening their local presence and valves offerings through acquisition operations.
“The biggest significant factor for our business here in the Middle East has been in the acquisition by Tyco of 75% of KEF holdings in July of last year,” says Stuart Medford, regional director, Tyco Flow Control Middle East.
“The plant in Sharjah, UAE is fully integrated, providing us local control of the complete manufacturing process right from the foundry supplying castings the component machining, assembly and testing of a wide range of Tyco gate, globe, check and ball valves,” he adds.
Seitz Valve Technology has introduced Solenoid valves for Increased Process Safety. “The high component reliability of Seitz solenoid valves increases the process safety
of the whole plant,” says Reju George, sales director at Eugen Seitz Middle East branch.
Rival player Emerson’s most recent introduction to the downstream market is high performance rotary valves.
“These can effectively replace poorly performing butterfly valves and provide a more compact, cost-effective alternative to segmented ball valves,” says Jose Mathew, director sales & service for Fisher Valves.
In Kuwait, Q80 Valve Industries have introduced several types of valves to the local market including gate, globe and check valves to the market.
“We started manufacturing in 2011 and hence at the moment we provide only gate, globe and check valves to downstream facilities,” says Vipul Parekh, director of sales at Q80 Valve Industries. “Our initial range is ZERO leakage products. Our second introduction will be ball valves in 2nd half of 2012 and butterfly valves in 2013,” he adds.
Valves specifications are determined by the end user and the engineering contracting houses that design and build the plants.
“Specifications are generally customer driven and are written incorporating internationally accepted standards generally either ASME, DIN, JIS, API and ISO are used,” says Nausheen Habib Andani, business development supervisor at Camtech Manufacturing.
As safety is the number one priority in all industries, specifications have evolved greatly over the years. “These changes are based upon operation experiences, advances in materials technology, design philosophy and improved manufacturing methods,” says Medford.
“We provide engineering and technical support locally to our customers within the region ensuring that best practices are provided at the user level,” notes Medford. “You would find the very highest specifications for the critical service valves where volatile process chemicals, high temperature and pressure are present.”
When specifying and purchasing valves, procurement managers at downstream companies should favour reliability over price and delivery, experts say. Using a trusted supplier with an established reputation and good knowledge of the industry will reduce the potential for failure, therefore minimising the risk of plant shut down.
“Apart from quality, valves purchase managers need to look at companies who have application mindset where manufacturer is interested in advising what specification valve is best suitable for certain applications,” Parekh adds.
On the top of that, innovation and durability of valves should also be taken into consideration when procuring valves to their facilities.
“Innovative designs and practicability in usage, compatibility with sour service and control fluids and simplicity in usage and clear visual indication of valve position need to be checked,” explains Swelem.
But, despite rigorous checks, poor quality valves utilised in petrochemical plants and refineries may fail. “Bad manufacturing could cause failure of valves installed in plants,” says Anish Koshy, general manager of Trouvay and Cauvin in the UAE. “In addition, process conditions are a major cause of serious failures including stress, corrosion, valve chatter and upstream restrictions.”
Demand on valves from downstream clients is expected to remain strong in the years to come. “There is strong demand within the region for petrochemicals and refinery sectors. There have been a number of large investments in new plants around the Gulf Region with many large scale projects in the engineering and construction stages,” says Medford.
“There will be a careful watch over future planned projects that are on the horizon to see how quickly they pull through to development,” he explains.
Market players have also noticed an increased demand for Electrical Submersible Pumps (ESP) and related equipment.”
These types of gadgets offer a simplified but highly efficient method of running a high voltage electrical conduit into a wellhead assembly when completion demands an electric driven submersible pump, that’s why there is a robust in demand,” says Swelem.
“In addition, time-saving wellheads or multistage are on the trend, and Delta’s
R&D engineering team are presently working on time saving Single Head WellHead
(SH) development, that offers significant time-saving and safety-enhancing advantages over conventional wellheads,” reveals Swelem.
“The SH is a multi-bowl system, connecting two casing strings in a single head which improves “safety” and reduces installation “time”. The system will save around 18 hours of rig time,” he adds.
On the top of that, the market trend in 2012 is moving more towards innovative and reliable valves. “Market trend is moving to using more exotic material like CN3MN / UNS08926 in 2012. This trend is fuelled by a need for more reliable valves,” concludes Parekh.
