The right equipment for the job

Serimax’s Jean-Michel Hartmann explains how his company’s pipelining work is flexible enough for the rough conditions of the CIS region.

Serimax, a world recognised company specialising in offshore and onshore pipeline welding, was established in Russia in 2007 and has operated its welding equipment on Russian territory since 2005. Serimax have welded offshore and onshore pipelines on Sakhaline 1 & 2, Varandey, VSTO and Iamal projects in the past five years. Serimax provides expertise and solutions to its customers worldwide regarding pipeline welding, mechanical tests, non destructive examination and using different kind of processes (SMAW, GMAW, GTAW, STT, pulse arc, single or dual torches), both manual and automatic. We also offer solutions for the welding of sour services pipelines, fatigue pipelines, deep sea, 5G or 2G welding processes. More than 25 welding engineers are currently working with Serimax. We have permanent establishments and workshops in France, Scotland, USA (Houston), Malaysia, Singapore, Russia with consumables and spare parts available to support our customers on short notice. Serimax also operates spool bases (prefabrication and reeling) for the offshore market in USA, Scotland and Angola.

Serimax designs and operates its own welding equipment, internal clamps and pipe facing machines. The Saturne and Saturnax equipment have welded numerous pipelines in the last 20 years. Our new re-rounder internal clamps for pipe diameters above 30 inches are strongly reducing high/low inconveniences and defects on root passes compared to conventional clamps. We have recently developed a remote controlled internal clamp breaking industry standards. All our equipment is maintained by a team of 200 technicians and engineers around the world, integrated into our customer production team. At customer request, we can also provide trained and experienced welders and welding supervisors to operate our equipment.

Our equipment is designed and tested for low temperatures (-40°C) and arctic/harsh conditions, specifically for North Sea, Canada, and Russia. We have conducted low temperature testing with VNIIGAS to certify our welding equipment for the Iamal project in 2007 down to -45°C. Serimax qualified a 48-inch automatic welding procedure for the welding of the seismic fault crossings on Sakhalin 2 project, with particular full scale mechanical tests.

Serimax is also certified by Russian authorities (NAKS, RTN, GOST R) for its equipment and consumables. We comply with International and Russian welding standards of the oil and gas pipeline industry and we offer our customers expertise. Our welding procedures are qualified using API, DNV or Russian standards. With our permanent establishment in the Moscow region, Serimax is supporting its Russian customers with a training centre, a workshop and a team of Russian specialists and welders dedicated to the Russian market.

Our commercial team can be contacted to discuss any future cooperation on pipeline projects in Russia or around the world at the following email address: sales@serimax.com.

Jean-Michel Hartmann is Serimax Manager, Landlines Project, Europe, Middle East, Africa & CIS.