What is the API standard for petroleum steel pipe?

Petroleum steel pipe

Petroleum pipe is the general name of oil-specific pipe (casing, oil pipe, drill pipe, square drill pipe, weighted drill pipe, drill collar, etc.) and pipeline pipe for oil and gas transmission, which runs through all aspects of oil drilling, well completion, oil (gas) extraction and storage and transportation projects, and is an important and essential raw material for the oil and gas industry, and its usage accounts for more than 40% of the total steel for the oil industry. The standard of conventional oil pipe products is mainly based on the American Petroleum Institute (API) standard, which is also called API oil pipe. In addition, the steel pipe industry has developed a large number of special oil pipes to meet the harsher geological conditions and oil and gas working conditions with corrosive media, the technical requirements of these products are higher than the API standard, and they cannot be produced and inspected in full accordance with the API standard, so they are also called non-API oil pipes.

API Organization

The American Petroleum Institute (American Pet rol eum Inst itute, API for short), founded on March 20, 1919 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., is one of the earliest and most successful standard-setting chambers in the world. API’s goal in developing and implementing its standardization program is to promote the widespread use of safe and interchangeable equipment and materials common to the oil and gas extraction industry, as well as the use of proven engineering and operating practices. Due to the advanced, universal and safe nature of API standards, API standards have been widely adopted by countries around the world, and the API organization has evolved into an authoritative academic organization for the oil and gas industry across national boundaries.

API Standards

API Standard is a general term for SPEC, RP and BUL. “Specification” (Specif ication): A document approved and issued to facilitate communication between purchasers and manufacturers, to provide interchangeability between the same equipment and materials purchased from different manufacturers and produced at different times; and to provide adequate safety for equipment and materials when used in the manner and for the purpose intended. “Recommended Practice” (Recommended Practice): A document approved and published for the dissemination of proven and good engineering, design, fabrication, construction, installation, testing and operating practices within the oil and gas industry or related industries. “Bulletin” (Bul l etin): A document approved and published for the purpose of informing the oil and gas industry and related industries of matters deemed inappropriate for operating specifications or recommended practices.

The contents included in API standards are: 1) definition of nomenclature; 2) classification of components; 3) description of procedures; 4) dimensional specifications; 5) guidelines for construction: materials, performance, design or operations; 6) measurement of quality and quantity when describing materials, products, systems, services or operations; 7) description of dimensional fit and measurement, etc.

Characteristics of API standards gas oil pipe

API standards are unofficial standards, and its policy statement is clearly stated in each of its specifications, recommended practices and circulars. API clearly states in its standardization outline that whether users and manufacturers jointly participate in the development of API standards, whether users or regulation-making departments refer to API standards and whether manufacturers follow API standards (except for licensees who are required to do so) are entirely up to company or individual decision.

API standards are very rigorous standards, and this is a guarantee of their level and credibility. This is reflected in API’s prudent approach to new products, which is reflected in the subtlety and logic of its policies, regulations and statements, as well as in the content of each specification, recommended practice and notification. For example, API Spec 5CT “Casing and Tubing Specification”, which is about 300 pages long, and the specification parameters, technical requirements and inspection methods strive to be expressed completely without ambiguity to ensure the accuracy and enforceability of the standard.

The API standard attaches great importance to the continuity of the content of the version. API standard follows the development of the process technology of the oil and gas industry and evolves continuously, and the latest version is adapted to the latest technology. However, the development of API standard pays special attention to the accumulation of experience and information, and the new version does not make any modification to the mature technical content except adding the latest achievements, so as to ensure the long-term continuity of the evolution of the technical level among the versions and avoid the obstacles to manufacturing and procurement caused by the change of the standard version. API will continue to incorporate new technologies and products into its standards and improve the standards with feedback from practical experience. For example, in API Spec 5CT Specification for Casing and Tubing, the 8th edition released in July 2005 added three PSL product specification levels for the first time, the 9th edition released in June 2011 added C110 high steel grade to the second group of corrosion resistance, and the 10th edition released in December 2018

The API specification is not intended to exclude the need for good technology and is not intended to prohibit anyone from purchasing or producing products that meet other specifications. each revision of the API is very prudent to include standards for non-API series products that have existed for many years.

The API standard places special emphasis on interchangeability, safety and good engineering practice and operational experience, thus making it more practical and applicable to a wider range of applications. Interchangeability solves the technical barriers of trade and greatly facilitates users all over the world. Safety and good engineering practice and operational experience make API standards more instructive and authoritative, so that standard users can adopt successful experience with confidence.

Standard API oil gas steel pipe

API petroleum pipe usually requires that the products implement and conform to API standards, establish and effectively run the quality management system in accordance with API Spec Q1 “Quality Outline Specifications for Petroleum, Petrochemical and Natural Gas Industries”, and that the enterprise is certified by API and granted the right to use the API club mark and mark the API club mark within the scope of permission. It is one-sided to think that products with product quality indexes conforming to and marking API standards are API products, which is an incomplete implementation of API standards. oil well pipes to which API standards apply cannot be accepted by users in the petroleum industry worldwide if they do not have API club mark.

Non-standard API oil gas steel pipe

Although the rigor and science of API standard are widely recognized, API standard is also recognized as the threshold standard. In the face of different working conditions, although the ordered steel pipe meets the API standard, it does not meet the requirements of using working conditions; a single pipe is qualified, but when connected into a pipe column, it does not meet the sealing requirements. These situations are very likely to cause frequent accidents and production reduction and shutdown in the use of oil pipes. Set loss, oil pipe corrosion, fatigue damage is very complex, but the oil pipe design, selection and procurement order technical conditions of the problem is not negligible one of the reasons. With the development of the oil and gas industry, the oil and gas that can be easily drilled and extracted is becoming less and less, and the actual working conditions faced by oil drilling and transmission are becoming more and more complicated. The oil pipes supplied according to API standards can no longer meet the exploration and development of deep wells, ultra-deep wells, high-pressure gas wells, salt paste layer, corrosive media wells, as well as long-distance, high-pressure, high-flow oil and gas transmission in harsh environments such as alpine, deep sea, desert and high geological disasters.

Since the early 1980s, the development and application of non-API oil pipe has been flourishing, and foreign steel pipe manufacturers such as Argentina Teneres Group, France Vallourec, Germany Mannesmann, Russia Steel Pipe Metallurgical Group, Japan Sumitomo Metal (now Japan Steel) and NKK (now JFE), U.S. United States Steel Group have been developing non-API oil pipe and monopolizing the world high-end oil pipe at high prices for a long time. market. China’s non-API petroleum pipe development started late, after nearly 20 years of catching up, non-API petroleum pipe has basically achieved localization, the main domestic manufacturers are Tiandian Pipe, Baosteel, Hengyang Steel Pipe, Baotou Steel Pipe, Pancheng Steel (now the unit is shut down), Changbao, Daye Special Steel, Baoji Steel Pipe, Bohai Petroleum Equipment, etc.. The development of non-API petroleum pipe requires advanced production units, high technical reserves and large capital investment. Domestic and foreign R&D is still concentrated on steel pipe manufacturers with scale and technical advantages.

Non-API petroleum pipes are personalized products developed by production plants according to users’ needs or to meet certain special performance requirements, which are proprietary or patented products, core products and high value-added products developed independently by each manufacturer. Non-API oil pipe includes non-API steel grade (mainly related to the material, the chemical composition, strength, toughness and/or corrosion resistance of these products have higher engineering performance and stricter working conditions compared with API standard oil pipe), non-API specifications (such as outer diameter, wall thickness, through diameter and coupling size) and non-API special threaded joints (also called special thread) and their combinations, etc. For oil well pipes, in most cases, non-API steel grades are also used with special threads. The variety of non-API oil pipe has reached about 200 kinds, and the production accounts for more than 30% of all oil pipe

The standard threads specified by API standards are short circular thread (SC), long circular thread (LC) and bias trapezoidal thread (BC), and the specification parameters and inspection of these threads shall conform to API Spec 5B “Processing, Measurement and Inspection of Casing, Tubing and Line Pipe Threads”. Special thread is a collective term for various threads different from those specified in the API Spec 5B specification. The above standard threads cannot meet the requirements of high-pressure gas wells, deep wells, high-temperature and high-pressure wells, directional wells and horizontal wells. In addition to solving the limitations of the above-mentioned threads, special threads usually have the advantages of strong resistance to bending and tensile stress, easy to unbuckle, good sealing performance, and strong resistance to overtorque. Different oil fields, different blocks, and different well conditions have different special characteristics, and no one special buckle can cover the whole world, which is why the world’s leading steel pipe manufacturers continue to develop a series of special buckles. Typical special buckle series are V & M, JFE (such as TIGER, BEAR, FOX, LI ON), Hydr i l, Hunt i ng, Tenaris, Baosteel BG, Tiandian Pipe TP, Hengyang HSM and other series.

ShunFu Metal LTD CO

ShunFu Metal is a large oil and gas tube manufacturer and supplier. We are metal experts and have been providing quality customer service and products since 1998.

At Fushun Metal, we supply a wide range of metals for a variety of applications. Our products/stock includes: Piling Pipe, Line Pipe, Casing and Tubing, Drill Pipe, Sucker Rod, CRA Piping etc

Our steel tubes and pipes are available in a wide range of process including: cold drawn, cold rolled, hot rolled, polished, threaded, painted etc. We can cut metal to your exact specifications.

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