Sandvik reports it has won the first large-scale stainless steel umbilical tube order in Brazil’s pre-salt Mero oilfield.

Mero is an expansive pre-salt oilfield in the Santos Basin offshore Rio de Janeiro with immense oil production potential. The Mero oilfield is being managed by the Libra Consortium, made up of a partnership between Petrobras, Total, Shell Brasil, CNPC and CNOOC Ltd.

The first phase of the project - Mero 1 - is an ultra-deepwater project consisting of 17 wells in a water depth of approximately 2,000 meters.

According to Sandvik, the stainless steel umbilical tube order contract is significant for the Brazilian offshore oil and gas industry, which typically uses thermoplastic hose umbilicals. The supplied solution will consist of more than 500 kilometers of Sandvik’s super duplex Sandvik SAF 2507 stainless steel umbilical tubes encapsulated by Prysmian Group.

Sandvik SAF 2507 is an austenitic-ferritic stainless steel that performs well in highly corrosive conditions. It offers excellent resistance to stress corrosion cracking, pitting and crevice corrosion, erosion corrosion and corrosion fatigue, the manufacturer said. It features high mechanical strength and good weldability. Umbilicals seamless tubes made from Sandvik SAF 2507 provide stronger structural reinforcement in smaller sizes compared to less durable thermoplastic technology.

“There are several advantages to using steel tubing over plastics, but the main one is reliability in challenging conditions,” said Alan Souza, Sales Manager, Sandvik. “At Sandvik, we have been observing market trends in Brazil closely for the past 20 years and are well placed to support the transition from thermoplastic to more robust steel.”

In 2015, Sandvik identified Brazil as a key growth region and opened its South American hub in Rio de Janeiro, which houses a service center, sales support and a warehouse. With this local hub, Sandvik noted it has been strengthening its footprint in the Brazilian oil and gas industry and expanding relationships with the key operators in the region for some time.