Tenaris grows US pipe presence with Ipsco buy

Market: Crude oil, Metals, Natural gas
22/03/19

Luxembourg-based steel pipe producer Tenaris has agreed to buy US-based Ipsco Tubulars from from Russian steelmaker TMK for $1.2bn.

Houston-based Ipsco produces seamless and welded oil country tubular goods (OCTG) and other pipe products across 11 facilities in the US and Canada, with a total capacity of 1mn t/yr (1.1mn st) of welded pipe, 450,000 t/yr of steel bars and 400,000 t/yr of seamless pipe.

Tenaris will acquire Ipsco's electric arc furnace-based billet and pipemaking facility in Koppel, Pennsylvania, which has a billet production capacity of 600,000 st/yr. The Koppel facility will be Tenaris' first steel bar production plant in the US.

Other facilities include a seamless pipe manufacturing plant in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, a heated and threaded pipe facility in Baytown, Texas, and a pipe manufacturing facility in Blytheville, Arkansas.

In January 2018 Ipsco had filed its first initial public offering before pulling back a month later. It refiled its IPO in March 2018, but never completed the sale of stock.

Ipsco said it had revenues of $1.08bn for the nine months ending 30 September 2018, and profit of $71.8mn, according to its most recent regulatory filings. It said 77pc of its revenue during that time was from OCTG business, with another 15pc from line pipe and the remainder from other sources.

The move comes amid multiple restarts and new investments by Tenaris and others in the US pipe sector amid a prolonged recovery in oil and gas drilling.

Tenaris announced it would open its $70mn sucker rods manufacturing facility in Conroe, Texas, in July to service the OCTG industry. Tenaris also began in late 2017 producing OCTG using imported raw billets at a new $1.8bn seamless pipe mill in Bay City, Texas.

In February, US Steel said it would restart an idled pipe mill in east Texas to service demand from the oil and gas industry.

US rig counts have recovered from the low point of 404 active rigs in May 2016 to 1,016 today, according to oil field services firm Baker Hughes. The current count is an increase of 2.1pc to the 995 active rigs a year ago but the lowest since April 2018.

Oil prices have risen since dipping at the end of 2018, with the Nymex WTI settling at $59.98/bl yesterday, up from $44.61/bl in December.

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22/11/24

Cop: Drafts point to trade-off on finance, fossil fuels

Baku, 22 November (Argus) — The new draft on the climate finance goal from the UN Cop 29 climate summit presidency has developed nations contributing $250bn/yr by 2035, while language on fossil fuels has been dropped, indicating work towards a compromise on these two central issues. There is no mention of fossil fuels in either the new draft text on the global stocktake — which follows up the outcome of Cop 28 last year, including "transitioning away" from fossil fuels — or in the new draft for the climate finance goal. Developed countries wanted a reference to moving away from fossil fuels included, indicating that not having one would be a red line. The new draft text on the climate finance goal would mark a substantial compromise for developing countries, with non-profit WRI noting that this is "the bridging text". Parties are negotiating the next iteration of the $100bn/yr that developed countries agreed to deliver to developing nations over 2020-25 — known as the new collective quantified goal (NCQG). The new draft sets out a figure of $250bn/yr by 2035, "from a wide variety of sources, public and private, bilateral and multilateral, including alternative sources". It also notes that developed countries will "take the lead". It sets out that the finance could come from multilateral development banks (MDBs) too. "It has been a significant lift over the past decade to meet the prior, smaller goal... $250bn will require even more ambition and extraordinary reach," a US official said. "This goal will need to be supported by ambitious bilateral action, MDB contributions and efforts to better mobilise private finance, among other critical factors," the official added. India had indicated earlier this week that the country was seeking around $600bn/yr for a public finance layer from developed countries. Developing countries had been asking for $1.3 trillion/yr in climate finance from developed countries, a sum which the new text instead calls for "all actors" to work toward. The draft text acknowledges the need to "enable the scaling up of financing… from all public and private sources" to that figure. On the contributor base — which developed countries have long pushed to expand — the text indicates that climate finance contributions from developing countries could supplement the finance goal. It is unclear how this language will land with developing nations. China yesterday reiterated that "the voluntary support" of the global south is not part of the goal. The global stocktake draft largely focuses on the initiatives set out by the Cop 29 presidency, on enhancing power grids and energy storage, though it does stress the "urgent need for accelerated implementation of domestic mitigation measures". It dropped a previous option, opposed by Saudi Arabia, that mentioned actions aimed at "transitioning away from fossil fuels". Mitigation, or cutting emissions, and climate finance have been the overriding issues at Cop 29. Developing countries have long said they cannot decarbonise or implement an energy transition without adequate finance. Developed countries are calling for substantially stronger global action on emissions reduction. By Georgia Gratton and Prethika Nair Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

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Pemex's lean Zama spending undercuts goals

21/11/24

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21/11/24

Pemex's lean Zama spending undercuts goals

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US alleges Nippon dumped HRC at higher rates

21/11/24

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21/11/24

US alleges Nippon dumped HRC at higher rates

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Cost of government support for fossil fuels still high

21/11/24

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21/11/24

Cost of government support for fossil fuels still high

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Investment funds’ net long on Ice TTF reaches new high

21/11/24

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21/11/24

Investment funds’ net long on Ice TTF reaches new high

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