Abakan Contracts to Build Large-Scale Clad Pipe Facility in Brazil
04/09/2013 - Abakan Inc. has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Cone S.A. for construction of a manufacturing facility to suit large-scale clad pipe manufacture in Brazil.
Abakan Inc., an emerging leader in the advanced coatings and metal formulations markets, announced that it has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Cone S.A. for construction of a manufacturing facility to suit large-scale clad pipe manufacture inside the new Suape Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in Pernambuco State, Brazil. The facility will help meet the demand for corrosion-resistant clad pipe to enable the safe and efficient production of oil in Brazil, where more than 80% of oil fields are highly sour.
The large-scale, 4-line clad pipe manufacturing plant will be capable of producing up to US$200 million of clad products annually. The decision to establish a plant in Brazil was driven by the requirements of Abakan's technology development partner, Petrobras, along with anticipated demand from other Brazilian energy and mining companies that have expressed interest in Abakan's cladding solutions as a means of reducing capital and operating costs in some of the world's most challenging corrosive and abrasive environments.
"This plant will be one of the world's largest metallurgical clad pipe manufacturing facilities, with the capability of quickly producing large quantities of corrosion- and/or wear-resistant clad pipe," said Robert Miller, Abakan's CEO. "The increased demand in Latin America and worldwide for clad pipe to deliver sour crude oil and gas from new and expanded projects such as the Brazilian and West African pre-salt reserves and the Gulf of Mexico, has us very excited about the growth potential for our clad pipe in markets that can easily be reached from this Northeastern Brazil facility."
Architectural drawings are finalized and permitting for the site has started, land preparation is slated to begin next month and the foundation will be completed in July. Abakan plans to start the installation of its specialty equipment by December.
The facility will be built on 1.6 hectares (four acres) inside the Suape EPZ together with an adjacent storage area. The EPZ offers exemptions from import and export taxes on equipment, materials and operations, with special financial privileges and tax incentives. The Suape EPZ is Brazil's first privately administered export processing zone.
The construction of the Brazil facility represents the first step in Abakan's plan to build corrosion-resistant clad pipe manufacturing facilities globally, to meet the rising global demand for corrosion-resistant clad pipe, plates and components used in extracting sour oil and gas resources. Due to the potential that any one of a dozen oil majors or their contractors could tie up the entire production capacity of the Brazilian facility, Abakan plans to establish similar 4- to 8-line facilities in Indonesia, the Middle East and North America.
Cone and its parent, Moura Dubeux Engineering, are the largest and most experienced administrators of property and industrial zones in the region, which house many international corporations operating in Brazil's northeast region. The Suape EPZ is located 21 kilometers from Recife's international airport, 20 kilometers from the Port of Suape and less than 10 kilometers from a large Petrobras oil refinery and petrochemical refinery and other potentially strategic industries for Abakan.
Abakan develops, manufactures, and markets advanced nanocomposite materials, innovative fabricated metal products and highly engineered metal composites for applications in the oil and gas, petrochemical, mining, aerospace and defense, energy, infrastructure and processing industries. Abakan's technology portfolio currently includes high-speed, large-area metal cladding technology; long-life nanocomposite anti-corrosion and-wear coating materials; and high-strength, lightweight metal composites. Abakan's products have demonstrated longer life, higher productivity and extremely high strength-to-weight ratios compared to competing technologies. The Abakan group of companies have been honored by The Wall Street Journal for being #1 Manufacturing Innovation across the globe, by Pipeline Industries Guild as the Top Subsea Pipeline Technology, by Forbes as the #1 Most Promising Material Science Company in the United States and has received numerous other trade, industry and technology awards including 5 R&D 100 Awards and a Technology Innovation Award from National Institute of Standards and Technology. Over $50 million has been invested in product development and testing by federal agencies, national labs, and our companies in order to deliver products that offer improved performance over the current state of art. Abakan has successfully introduced its metal coatings for metal asset protection and life-extension in the oil and gas and mining industries, and is currently focusing on the scale-up and commercialization of its highly-disruptive metal cladding products for the oil and gas, oil sands, mining, and chemical industries. Abakan currently operates from multiple locations in United States and Canada, and intends to expand global operations in South America, Canada, Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.
