JUBAIL, 7 October 2007 -- Construction of a seamless pipe mill, described as the first in the GCC, is under way at the Jubail Industrial City. Its production start-up is planned for first quarter of 2009 with a production capacity of 500,000 tons of seamless pipes covering OCTG products and line pipes for the oil and gas industry. It is a Jubail Energy Services Company's (JESCO) turnkey project.

Danieli Spa Italy is supplying a state-of-the-art technology for seamless pipes manufacturing to JESCO. "It will be the very first operating seamless pipe mill in the very demanding market for OCTG seamless pipes in the Middle east," a press release said yesterday.

JESCO is aiming to fit in the highly competitive environment of seamless pipes manufacturing by producing its items with the latest technology available, committed to the highest qualitative levels, shorter supply chain to its users and offering competitive rates for its products.

JESCO will create about 3,000 jobs directly and indirectly in the region, aiming to achieve a high percent of Saudization in its workforce, transferring knowledge of the very new industry to the areas, providing challenging opportunities to its employees in a healthy work environment.

The company capital is SR750 million, 51 percent owned by Industrial and Energy Service Company and the rest by different Saudi and non-Saudi investors.

One way of manufacturing seamless pipe is through plug mill. This process is used to make larger sizes of seamless pipe, typically 6 to 16 inches (150 to 400 mm) diameter. An ingot of steel weighing up to two tons is heated to 2,370 °F (1,300 °C) and pierced. The hole in the hollow shell is enlarged on a rotary elongator, resulting in a short thick-walled tube known as a bloom. An internal plug approximately the same diameter as the finished diameter of the pipe is then forced through the bloom. The bloom containing the plug is then passed between the rolls of the plug mill. Rotation of the rolls reduces the wall thickness. The tube is rotated through 90° for each pass through the plug mill to ensure roundness.

© Arab News 2007