Pumped up growth

At a manufacturing level competition is tough. Pumps have been around for a long time and the global market is fragmented. In its World Pumps report for 2005, the McIlvaine company found that around 10000 firms were manufacturing industrial pumps. Only five, however, achieved pump sales over US $1 billion for that year – ITT, Grundfos, Flowserve, Ebara and KSB – all are active players in the region.

With such competition, providers are turning their attention to high value-added services, in a bid to stand out from the crowd. With the regional rental market for pumps booming – major operators report a utilisation rate of more than 80% – high levels of technical performance are also necessary. Applications range from ultra high pressure (UHP) pumps being used for surface preparation and cleaning, to low pressure, high-flow pumps performing flushing operations on pipelines.

“Reliability is paramount,” said Alan Bryden, director corporate services for Hydrolink, a pump rental company. “While there may be specific difficulties in each installation, reliability is a common requirement. From a pump packager’s perspective, producing a solution that optimises reliability, without compromising application requirements is our goal.”

This reliability has to be achieved in demanding conditions. Extremes of temperature and pressure determine the quality of the materials and equipment needed. In the Middle East dust is an ever-present enemy.

“Pumps have to be built to a higher specification,” said Bryden. “As a local packager of pump sets, we look to provide designs that are compliant with local conditions and always consider the necessary extra filtration and cooling requirements of the region.

“In the Hydrolink range, the technological advances in the materials employed in UHP pumps and accessories have probably seen the most significant change. The modern duplex steels, our ability to x-ray head blocks and advances in hose and fitting technology have had a very positive impact on reliability and part life.”

Hydrolink’s research and development work has extended the life of high wear items. Running a rental fleet, the company gets feedback direct from operators. This goes straight to its engineers to help them target specific performance improvements.

Standards and safety

Such performance improvements are driven by two things: demanding and educated customers – Bryden sees the oil and gas industry as one where customers are very knowledgeable – and tougher standards. For example, API (American Petroleum Institute) standards have gone from the sixth to the eleventh edition in the past decade.
“The oil and gas sector stands out as a leader in terms of best practice and an impressive approach to preventative management,” said Bryden. “Safety is not an area for compromise and the industry has set strict standards in this respect.”

Constantly improving standards, often related to safety, create a need for new or upgraded equipment. This is particularly prevalent in fire safety. Hydrolink is involved in upgrading fire-fighting capacity for offshore supply vessels and oil and gas companies are increasing the demand for fully-compliant charter vessels.

At sea, the changes are being driven by installed Halon fire-fighting systems coming to the end of their operational life. On shore, lightweight portable pumps, mounted on trailers or trucks are used to tend oil and gas facilities, such as refineries or terminals.

“In recent years we have supplied significant orders of pumps to a number of Middle Eastern countries – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE and Jordan,” said Andy Roe, sales director for Hale Products Europe. “We have introduced our twin pressure vehicle pump to these markets – the Godiva World Series. High pressure provides significant reduction in water used for fighting small fires, while high volume low-pressure output is available for larger fires.”

Again, research and development aimed at reliability and durability is an important factor.

“Our fire pumps are expected to operate at full performance for long periods,” said Roe. “It is important that reliability and durability are designed into the pump. Our design engineers are continuously investigating new technologies, such as new types of material and electronic pump management systems.”

Management and automation

Hydrolink has taken a technical approach to improving the flushing services it offers, by using electronic control modules (ECMs), as well as programmable logic controllers (PLCs).

We have a fleet of flushing pumps that are PLC-automated,” said Colin Addison, business development manager for Hydrolink’s pumps division. “So we can preset them and run them until the operation is complete. We have a fully integrated ECM system. With our advanced pump sets you can control your pump speed by inching it up to a certain duty point or run-out point. What adds value to the pump set is the control system.”
Though ECMs have been around for the past nine years or so, Hydrolink is adding the extra advantage of being able to operate the system remotely, as Addison explained.

“We take it a step further by isolating the controller from the engine. We integrate them into another form of control system, whereby we can operate them from a control room or by radio control. We use the same technology as ECM where we can start it, run it up and actually integrate it into a control-kit computer 10000 miles away.”

According to Paul Dann, general manager of Hydroflow, a pump rental company, part of the reason for increased automation is a shortage of the right people to do the work manually.

“One of the biggest problems the industry faces is a lack of technically qualified contractors,” he said. “We sometimes end up doing the job ourselves because there aren’t the right people available. We also try to use automatic equipment to limit the amount of exposure the guys get to dangerous environments.”

A case in point is cleaning inside oil storage tanks. Manual cleaning, involving operators with water blasting guns, needs scaffolding to be put in place – a time consuming and costly exercise. Using an automated water jet system, Hydroflow is able to provide a set up that does the same job in less time, using fewer people.

“The process saves money,” said Dann. “We can do the job in a day, where it might otherwise take five days just for the scaffolding.”

The Hydroflow-designed equipment works by extending arms inside the tank, with pump nozzles on the ends. These rotate through 360 degrees, cleaning the tank as they turn. The company also operates a robot for high-pressure water demolition on concrete.

International reach

The need for pumps is growing in this region, and expanding internationally. Dubai-based pump rental companies are working both overseas and sending their equipment further afield than the Gulf. In a pattern that is emerging in other sectors of the oil and gas industry, projects across Africa, India and the Caspian region are benefiting from local expertise.