Tecninox Exec: Working Hard With Norway To Resolve Pipe Issue

www.tecninox.it

OSLO (Dow Jones)–The managing director of Italian engineering company Tecninox said Tuesday that the company is “working hard” with the Norwegian authorities and oil companies to resolve a potential problem with a pipe fitting that it manufactured for use in the oil industry.

The Norwegian Oil Industry Association, or OLF, said Monday that Tecninox had heated a large number of duplex pipe fittings at the wrong temperature, reducing their ductility and anticorrosive properties, and that they may need replacing once oil companies like StatoilHydro ASA (STO) work out the extent of the problem.

Tecninox Managing Director Luca Pentericci told Dow Jones Newswires that the problem arose due to the “wrong application of the canceled heat treatment method,” which meant some components at the center of heating baskets in the furnace may not have reached the correct temperature.

“This is the first event of this kind that we have been confronted with in the past 20 years. The issue was discovered in Norway during production testing,” Pentericci said.

“We have made the necessary steps to ensure that all the potential customer users of this material have been informed. Nonetheless, a very limited amount of fittings will have a lower resistance to corrosion,” he added.

“We have gone through all the testing and procedures to make sure this kind of situation can’t happen again and all the fittings made in the past few weeks are totally in accordance with the specifications. This has been decisive in having our NORSOK qualification reinstated,” he said.

NORSOK standards have been developed by the Norwegian petroleum industry to ensure safe and efficient operations.

Company Web site: http://www.tecninox.it

Source: www.wsj.com