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The impact of the oil and gas industry on the valve market and valve technology
1、 Global Valve Market
Due to increasingly fierce competition in the global valve market, many world-renowned valve manufacturers have closed their factories in North America, Europe, and Japan and moved to China, India, South Korea, and Central Europe to reduce valve manufacturing costs and increase sales profits. With the increasing development and utilization of oil and natural gas in China, the Chinese valve market has grown significantly, which makes most valve manufacturers value building factories in China. As a result, there has been a craze for foreign valve companies to establish factories in China, with some companies even establishing multiple factories in China to shorten transportation distances and delivery times.
In 2004, the American Valve Association announced that the domestic valve market share in the United States reached 3.18 billion dollars; According to the data of China General Machinery Association, China's valve market has exceeded 20 billion yuan, and by 2010, China's domestic valve demand will reach 34.5 billion yuan. The sales volume of various valves in the global market is around $40 billion. According to statistics, there are over 2000 valve manufacturers in China, together with over 1400 valve manufacturers from other developed and developing countries, accounting for 80% of the global market share; More than 10 other valve consortia have a global market share of 20%.
There are many types of valves and they are also widely used. The oil and natural gas industry has always been a major purchaser in the valve market. Oil (including oil refining) and natural gas are widely used, accounting for 37.4% of the total consumption; The consumption of valves in the energy sector is 21.3%; The chemical industry ranked third, at 11.5%; Next came the field of water treatment and sewage treatment, with 11.4%.
2、 Development of main markets for valves
1. Oil and gas industry
In North America and some developed countries, there are many proposed and expanded oil projects. In addition, as people increasingly attach importance to environmental protection, the country has established environmental regulations, so refineries established many years ago must be rebuilt. Therefore, in the coming years, the investment in oil development and refining will maintain a growth momentum. The construction of long-distance oil and gas pipelines in China and Russia in the future will directly promote the growth of the valve market in the oil industry. Based on the long-term development of the oil and gas development and transportation valve market, it is predicted that the demand for valves in oil and gas development and transportation will increase from $8.2 billion in 2002 to $14 billion in 2005.
2. Energy industry
For a long time, the demand for valves in the energy industry has maintained a solid and stable growth rate. The total power generation capacity of thermal and nuclear power stations constructed worldwide is 2679030MW, while that of the United States is 743391MW. The power generation capacity of new power station projects in other countries in the world is 780000MW, which will increase by 40% in the next few years. The energy markets in Europe, South America, Asia, and especially China will become new growth points in the valve market. From 2002 to 2005, the demand for valve products in the energy market will increase from $5.2 billion to $6.9 billion, with an annual average growth of 9.3%.
Chemical industry
The chemical industry ranks first in the industry with an output value of over 1.5 trillion US dollars, and is also one of the larger demand markets for valves. The chemical industry often requires valves made of mature design, high processing quality, and rare industrial materials. In recent years, the competition in the chemical industry market has become extremely fierce, and many chemical manufacturers have had to cut costs. However, in 2003-2004, the output value and profits of the chemical industry have multiplied, and the demand for valve products has reached a new peak in the past 30 years. As shown in Figure 4, after 2005, the demand for valve products in the chemical industry will increase at an annual growth rate of 5%.
3、 Influence of oil and gas industry on valve technology
Although the range of valve products involved in the development and transportation of oil and natural gas has remained basically unchanged for a century, valve manufacturers have continuously updated valve technology and actively responded to changes in the oil and natural gas industry market. To maintain or not be left behind in the market, valve manufacturers need to continuously update the technology and process of valve design, manufacturing, service, and sales. The fact is that oil companies are increasingly demanding valve manufacturers: On the basis of providing reasonable prices, valve manufacturers must be adept at solving the problems faced by oil companies, extending the performance of valve products and providing more service capabilities in the face of harsher working environments and stricter environmental requirements.
(1) Metal seal
The demand for oil and natural gas in the world market has grown rapidly, and the footprint of developing crude oil has also spread to every corner of the globe. The extraction of crude oil has put forward new requirements for equipment. For example, ultra-deep well technology poses challenges to equipment such as ultra-low temperature and ultra-high pressure. The extraction of ultra-heavy crude oil is a profitable option, especially when crude oil reaches $30 per barrel. Nowadays, high concentrations of asphaltene and other impurities have caused difficulties in the transportation and processing of crude oil. Generally, the soft sealing ball valves used in oil pipelines cannot meet the requirements of operating conditions, which requires valve manufacturers to develop metal sealing ball valves that can adapt to changes in temperature and pressure, and even ensure absolute sealing when transporting solid media (hydroxide, coke, etc.). Metal sealing technology benefits from the development of surface spraying technology. Valve manufacturers hope to use this technology to maintain their market position and incorporate spraying technology into their development strategies. They cooperate with research institutes and universities to develop the next generation of "ultra hard" coatings.
(2) Anti "explosion decompression"
In 2002, the American Petroleum Institute standard API 6D stipulated that valve products with a design pressure higher than ASME Class 600 must be designed to prevent "explosive decompression.". Explosion decompression refers to the phenomenon that when the pressure inside the valve drops rapidly, CO 2 permeated into the seal due to the high pressure effect expands rapidly due to the pressure drop, causing seal cracking and fracture during valve closing, leading to valve failure. An oil company ranked first on a deep-sea platform when it discovered a valve explosion and pressure relief phenomenon. After the valve failed, the company had to stop working for several weeks to replace the valve, resulting in heavy losses. Since then, oil companies have required that high-pressure valves provided by valve manufacturers must be equipped with "explosion proof and pressure relief" configurations. Soon, valve manufacturers reacted quickly and developed anti "explosive decompression" seals and anti "explosive decompression" valves to meet stringent environmental requirements.
(3) Corrosion of Sour Crude Oil
The rising price of crude oil has led refining companies to focus on sour crude oil, investing in the development of the sour crude oil market is highly profitable, and has a price competitive advantage in long-term supply contracts. However, sour crude oil contains corrosive media such as H2S, which poses new challenges to the corrosion resistance of equipment. Valve manufacturers can provide materials approved in accordance with ISO 15156, as well as test data (in accordance with ISO 15156) to prove the corrosion resistance and long life of valve materials. End users will include these valve manufacturers in the corrosion resistant valve supplier list.
(4) Fugitive emissions
ISO 15848 specifies requirements for the design of fugitive emissions from valves, and manufacturers have redesigned the packing and sealing arrangements for common and special valves to meet updated standards. However, the new standards are too general and strict, so many oil companies have formulated their own emission standards, for example, many North American companies refer to the API 622 standard. Further improvement of valve fugitive emission standards requires cooperation among valve manufacturers, users, and standard setters, drawing on each other's experience, and working together to solve the problem.
(5) Early wear and equipment fatigue
In pursuit of economic benefits, many oil refining enterprises are operating at an overload. The result is endless capacity additions to production equipment and system modifications. Enterprise expectations for equipment exceed the original intent of the design, which requires valve manufacturers to take precautions and actively participate in various tasks of users to avoid adverse effects of unreasonable design in the production process on valve reliability, service life, and safety. For example, valves used in thermal cycle systems are prone to thermal fatigue of parts. Valve manufacturers with experience in industrial processes will arrange valves appropriately to reduce the likelihood of problems occurring.
(6) Preventive Maintenance
In order to ensure production, petroleum enterprises require to arrange equipment maintenance cycles. With the development of valve testing systems, electronic hardware, and software, preventive maintenance of valves has changed from an intelligent concept to a reality. A small number of valve manufacturers proficient in automation control provide data analysis systems to quantify valve operation processes and provide valve preventive maintenance time.
(7) Automatic actuator
The automation of oil refining process is the trend of the times, and the intermediate control technology has been developed for a long time. Valve manufacturers install automatic actuators on valves to meet the requirements of automatic control production. The technology of automatic actuators has been greatly developed. On the other hand, manufacturers of actuators also provide users with valve products with actuators installed. Therefore, the trend of integrating actuators and valves poses a challenge to a single manufacturer. After all, users want to find a company to solve problems more easily and avoid disputes.
(8) Pipeline ball valve
Natural gas transportation pipeline engineering is a very large and potential market for pipeline ball valves. Monitoring of long-distance pipelines is very important. Some companies have developed intelligent devices that users can use to detect pipelines. For example, "smart pig" technology. This robot can detect the thickness of the pipe wall and even corrosion points. However, the detection device requires a diameter for the pipeline, so the diameter ball valve has become the preferred product of long-distance pipeline companies. On the other hand, long-distance pipelines require that the wall thickness of the valve be as thin as possible, and that the valve material have high yield toughness and corrosion resistance to meet the requirements of pipeline expansion, steering, and regional environmental changes. More importantly, managers of long-distance pipelines require that the service life of purchased valves must be longer than the service life of the pipeline itself.
4、 New Trends in the Oil and Gas Industry Market
The regulatory role of economic leverage has led oil companies to pay more attention to the development of ultra-heavy crude oil. The refining process of ultra-heavy crude oil has also been studied for more than 10 years. In this process, delayed coking units and oil refining units have been greatly developed, and these fields have become a powerful driving force for valve market growth and valve technology progress. Valve manufacturers have been committed to solving new problems posed by temperature, pressure, and harsh coking environments in these devices, and have achieved gratifying results. Although the original valve purchasing markets in Venezuela, Mexico, Canada, and India have declined in this field, the valve markets in China and Brazil have shown a rapid growth momentum in the past four years. In the next few years, the valve markets in China, Canada, and Russia will make valve companies have expectations.
The environmental awareness of countries around the world is increasing year by year, and it is an inevitable trend to strengthen the control of environmental pollution during the refining process. For example, the United States Environmental Protection Agency has stricter regulations on the operating conditions of hydrotreating plants. In these devices, the new requirements pose a challenge to existing pressure relief valve technology: how to keep the valve tightly closed in the face of huge pressure drops. In fact, only a few valve companies can provide such valve products to meet the requirements of harsh operating conditions.
LNG liquefaction plants and stations, as well as GTL gas projects, require a large number of low-temperature valves. This market has broad prospects and is a fertile land for valve manufacturers.
In addition, in the next few years, hydrocracking units, fluidized bed catalytic cracking units, mixed fuel units, delayed coking units, etc., will have new requirements for the valve market and valve technology. Although these processing systems have existed for many years, they require longer equipment life than end users, and require valve manufacturers to meet higher standards for their products.
In the dual challenges of market and technology, valve manufacturers in China always face changes in valve standards and market rules with a positive attitude. They actively participate, strengthen cooperation with various standards committees and valve associations, and share information. In the final analysis, no matter how the market changes, valve manufacturers who are good at solving user problems always have advantages, and this advantage comes from cooperation with users in the field of valve operating conditions. These valve manufacturers encourage valve design engineers to communicate with end users and require design engineers to personally visit the site to understand the valve working environment. Valve companies that are willing to innovate know that the development of valve technology and market profits come from customer on-site work.
In the next few years, the world's largest oil companies will continue to revise and supplement the quality standards they choose for valves to compensate for issues such as fugitive emissions, fire safety, and ease of maintenance. Valve manufacturers are pleased with the continuous growth in valve demand and sales growth brought about by new technologies, but have to face the brutal pressure on valve product profits through the "one-time payment" approach. This contradiction in the valve market in the oil and gas industries requires valve manufacturers to devote themselves to valve technological innovation while maintaining market share.
