International welding company Serimax has secured its first onshore pipeline project in Saudi Arabia.
Serimax will provide welding services for the Ras Az-Zawr to Riyadh water pipeline transmission system, working on behalf of contractor Mapa-Limak-MNG and end client Saline Water Conversion Corporation.
The workscope involves in-trench welding on two parallel 72" water lines over a length of 125km. Serimax will train contractor welders on its Saturnax automatic welding system, with welding procedure qualification taking place onsite from mid August and production expected to start in October.
Serimax said the contract win was a major step forward in achieving a key objective of further market penetration in the Middle East region.
Cyril Tigien, Serimax's vice president for Europe, Middle East, Africa & Russia/Community of Independent States, said: "We have performed a number of offshore projects in Saudi Arabia but this is our first major onshore project and is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the value of Serimax's full automatic welding technologies in a strategically important region.
"It is a large diameter workscope with welding taking place in-trench in difficult desert working conditions, but our previous expertise in delivering first class welding in challenging environments gave us a competitive advantage in winning this contract.
"The project has already begun, which presents a demanding mobilisation schedule, but we are committed to an immediate start on welder training and are looking forward to building a strong relationship with contractors Mapa-Limak-MNG."
Serimax provides full service welding encompassing marine pipelines, spoolbase, landlines and fabrication, and is part of the Vallourec group which is a world leader in tubular solutions, has a market capitalisation exceeding €8bn, and employs 20,000 people in more than 20 countries.
