An in-depth seminar for a revised offshore standard

25/07/2019 - Germany

A seminar hosted by our Düsseldorf entity in July helped our customers and partners transition to the new offshore EN10225 standard.

Why the new standard?

The environment for offshore projects in changing. Oil and gas companies are steadily looking for new exploration fields. The new offshore standard EN10225, the delivery standard for plates, sections and hollow sections for offshore steel structures, is designed to adapt new steel structures towards the harsher environments and deeper water depths.

This affects many areas in the offshore business sector, from design to material purchasing and fabrication. As it comes into effect without a transition period, Vallourec hosted a two-day seminar to help our customers and partners understand the impact of the change for hot finished hollow sections.

Two days of diverse activities

The seminar relied on our long-term experience combined with technical state-of-the-art feasibilities and took place over two days. The first day was fully dedicated to the revised EN 10225, published and effective in July 2019. After an introduction by Ralf Hojda, R&D / M&D Director Industry Product Line, participants attended several presentations by our experts Stephan Scherf and Daniel Strötgen on:

administrative and technical changes
amendments in steel designations, delivery conditions and restrictions, testing conditions and steel grades
amendments in welding tests and prequalification of steels in arctic areas

The second day offered a presentation of new developments at Vallourec, such as the Oceanfit® series – grades geared specifically to offshore applications – and our new Vallourec.smart services offer to support our customers across their value chain. We also showed Vallourec's shaped pipes offer, giving the customer the opportunity of shaped tubes with dimensions variations over full length to save machining.

Later, the attendees benefitted from a tour of the Düsseldorf Rath plug rolling mill one of the most advanced in the world. They discovered modern testing facilities and a comprehensive range of customized and finish-machining options, allowing us to match the most stringent customer requirements and produce highly advanced MSH sections.

Dr. Stefan Herion, Managing Director at the Center of Competence for Tubes and Hollow Sections for KoRoH GmbH, shared his experience: "The seminar gave a perfect overview about the new EN10225. Comprehensive changes are implemented in the new revision, according to the needs of the market. This increases the safety of every offshore construction and makes the daily work easier for the design engineer, the purchaser and finally the end user. One of the main points is the extension to high strength steels. Further, the extension of the options helps to define and order exactly the steel properties the designer needs, what is important for safe and reliable constructions. As an example, between many others, the new definitions how to test rectangular hollow sections can be named."

Overall, the seminar welcomed participants from Germany, France, the Netherlands, Singapore, UK and Indonesia. We thank our guests for their presence and their enthusiasm during the seminar.

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