Spanning the value chain

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Oil & gas industry

From well to wellness: Bekaert’s integrated presence in the oil & gas industry

In the oil & gas industry all over the world Bekaert products play a key role. Whether it concerns onshore or offshore oil extraction or gas mining, Bekaert products contribute to sustainable, safer and more cost-effective operations. From the search for suitable wells to creating the wellness and ambient comfort at people’s homes.

Prospection and exploration

In the prospecting phase, Bekaert provides hi-tech wire to reinforce tow leader cables and well-logging cables – cables to attach the marine seismic streamers prospecting the sea – and to protect them from external pressure. These wires also reinforce umbilicals transferring different functions like electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic, or optical signals to remote operated vehicles (ROVs), for example, which are performing undersea exploration.
Bekaert’s high performance cords are used in large bore high pressure hoses. The hoses are used in a variety of activities needed for the exploration of oil and gas in the deep sea such as choke and kill hoses, dredging hoses and rotary drilling hoses.
In the exploratory drilling phase, Bekaert wires are used for mooring ropes – usually large 6-strand ropes – to anchor the drilling unit so that measuring instruments can be lowered into the pit.

Oil product, storage and transport

Bekaert products are counted on further down the value chain, once the oil platform has been built and relevant equipment has been installed. Abandonment & Recovery (A&R) winch ropes, which are used to install the pipes that will transport the oil, consist of high tensile rope wire from Bekaert. The flexible pipes that do the actual crude oil transport contain several layers of heavy-duty Bekaert profiled wires.

Super high tensile wires for spiral strands (monostrand rope) are used for permanent deepwater mooring for floating oil production platforms. Round and flat armoring wire is used to reinforce production umbilicals.

Today, existing oil wells get a second life through water injection. This is done to maintain pressure in the underground reservoir and to sweep or displace the oil from the reservoir and push it towards an oil production well. Bekaert’s steel cord-reinforced, thermoplastics strips for water injection pipes provide a viable alternative to existing, high maintenance steel pipes.

Other oil platform related functions also rely on Bekaert products. For example, pressure vessels remove sulfates from the seawater as the water needs to be desalinated before it is injected into the oil well to release the oil from the sea bottom. They also supply the oil platform crew with potable water. Bekaert cables make sure the sprinkler hoses can withstand extreme temperatures and Bekaert burners allow eco-friendly incineration of residual gasses during oil extraction.

When the oil or gas is ready for consumption it is transported to the end-consumers. They can use energy-efficient condensation boilers with Bekaert burners installed. Bekaert brings wellness to their houses in an eco-friendly way.

Paper industry

Through thick and thin: Bekaert’s integrated presence in the paper industry

Paper is an outstanding example of an industry in which Bekaert products play a crucial role. Right after the first tree hits the ground over the pre-treatment of wood pulp to the printing, bundling and recycling of paper: Bekaert’s presence spans the entire value chain of the paper industry.

The giant felled logs are pulled to a staging area for transportation to the paper mill. This technique, which uses two ropes, is called ‘high lead logging’. The ‘mainline’ performs the hardest task and is used to pull the logs from the cutting area to the staging area. The other rope, the ‘haulback’, is used to reverse the system and return the hardware used to grab and hold the logs back to the cutting area.

At the paper mill, pulp is made from the logs and transformed to a paper web. For added value grades, the paper is coated with a water-based solution that needs to be dried. This process is performed by non-contact infrared dryers made out of Bekinit® fibers. Later, similar non-contact infrared dryers are used in the printing and converting industries especially for ink and glue drying.

Once the paper has arrived at the consumer, Bekaert wire plays a role in almost every way that people can interact with paper. From the basic action of writing on it with a pen containing Bekaert spring wire; over clipping or stapling it with paper clips or staples made from Bekaert wire to printing, faxing and copying it with equipment that contains toner cartridges containing Bekaert fiber based filter media. Bekaert bookbinding wire is used to make neat paper bundles in all kinds of shapes and colors.

At the end of the paper product life cycle, Bekaert baling wire is used to bundle large packs of used paper to make for more efficient handling when transported to the recycling site, where the story starts all over again.

Mining industry

Deep inside the value chain: Bekaert’s integrated presence in the mining industry

Mining is the starting-point for any natural resource-related process where value is created. Bekaert supplies all manner of wire-based products to mines the world over and to almost every step in the value chain. Driven by the steady demand for all kinds of materials, Bekaert is omnipresent on the mining scene, where people’s lives depend on a consistently high product quality, in every corner of the world.

Bekaert’s presence starts already at the construction of the mine through the supply of steel fibers, all kinds of meshes and other reinforcement materials. Dramix® steel fibers, that can be mixed with concrete without clumping, are used to reinforce mine tunnels and shafts with maximum safety as a result.

In underground mining, Bekaert high-carbon rope wire is used to manufacture hoisting ropes for the transportation of people and equipment, and to manufacture balance ropes and haulage ropes.

In open-pit mining, Bekaert high-carbon rope wire is a key component of shovel ropes and of ropes for excavators and draglines.

With its conveyor belt cord for the reinforcement of belts which continuously transport the extracted ores from the mines, Bekaert significantly contributes to longer equipment life time and lower total life time cost. In addition, woven steel cord fabric with Bekaert steel cord offers conveyor belts increased resistance against impact, cutting or heat.