Pump action

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The oil and gas industry requires highly engineered pumps customised for applications as diverse as seawater injection, condensate extraction, fire fighting, seawater lift and oil export.

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Peter Barr, sales director, Flowserve Gulf.

Rampant demand is forcing pump manufacturers to develop huge super-factory hubs to keep pace with upstream industry expansion.

Pump technology has come a long way since Archimedes invented the screw pump in the 3rd century BC - an invention used to irrigate the Hanging Gardens of Babylon four centuries later.

Modern age pumps come in all shapes and sizes, from the humble to the colossal, the manual to the engine powered. Their roles in the industry are equally varied - from pumping oil and gas along pipelines to cutting steel with extremely high-pressure water jets.

What cannot be disputed is their importance in both the upstream and downstream sectors; they are involved in nearly every stage of the process. They are used to extract the product from the field - via injection and MOL (Main Oil Line) pumps, transport raw products to refineries or ports and pump substances around during the refining process.

The global pump market is currently in the midst of an unprecedented boom - the oil and gas industry being a major force behind such growth.

According to market researcher McIlvaine Company, the world market for industrial pumps was US$29 billion in 2006, and is expected to grow to $52 billion by 2010. Growth in the Middle East is equally substantial, presenting a major challenge for manufacturers as they struggle to keep up with demand and deliver pumps on time.

"At the moment we are seeing a really overheated supply chain. If you had asked me for an estimated production time, even 18 months ago, we would have said a medium sized injection pump of five megawatts would take 40-45 weeks, but the same equipment now takes about 60-65 weeks to produce due to the overextended state of the market," explains Andrew Ferrie, general manager, Sulzer Pumps Middle East.

Sulzer are a leading manufacturer of large scale industrial pumps, including seawater injection pumps. They boast the largest injection pump in the world - a 27 megawatt pump based in Baku, Azerbaijan. They also have the world's highest pressure pump named Thunder Horse - capable of 13,881 psi (pounds per square inch). Relatively new to the region, the company set up a sales office in 2004 and now has expanded to three separate facilities with over 40 staff.

Pumping up production

Pump manufacturers are struggling to increase operations to meet the high demand. Such problems are compounded by the current high prices of raw materials and the lack of skilled engineers. Many companies have reservations about using the Far East, but the region is becoming an increasingly viable alternative due to the possibilties it offers for cheaper manufacturing.

"We are now building what we call ‘superfactories', which will be modern state-of-the-art factories in India and in China. The factory in India will predominantly support our Middle Eastern business. We chose to go to India because it was more controllable and we could find the skilled base there to do it," says Ferrie.

"From what I've seen, in 2004 we had no chance of using India, as our clients would not accept this. Now the tables have turned to such an extent that our customers are actually pushing us to develop the Indian facility since there are not enough pump vendors to meet demand," he adds.

This dichotomy between the need to build more pumps and the lack of cheap resources and staff to build them is felt throughout the industry. Often the company will look to source raw materials from further afield, to build more facilities and to train their own staff in order to meet the targets.

The most important factor, both for them and their customers, is that the product is still of the highest quality and delivered in the required time.

Peter Barr, director of sales and service, Flowserve Gulf, echoes this sentiment by describing the need to get the balance right between cost effectiveness and quality assurance. "We have existing facilities in India and China, but there are only certain clients to whom this is acceptable.

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