Market Trends of MEA Pipeline Maintenance Industry
Pigging Segment to have a Significant Share in the Market
- The pigging segment is expected to have a significant market share during the forecast period. In 2021, the pigging segment held a major share of the market, and the claim is expected to grow. Furthermore, The application of pipelines as oil transport dates back to 1859. The increasing demand for refined products, like kerosene, led to more production wells and a rising need to transport the products to the markets.
- The two pipeline pigging services applications are the new and old pipelines. During the construction of the new pipeline, every section of the pipeline must be pigged using an intelligent and utility pigging tool before the line-filling phase. For the old pipelines, the operators must carry out pigging in pluggable sections after a while. This interval of time varies significantly from country to country and depends on each country's regulatory bodies.
- One of the major drivers for the pipeline-pigging market is the development of new pipelines. Since the oil price crisis in 2014, major countries, which have been historically dependent on the oil and gas upstream industry, are facing problems finding consumers for the crude oil produced.
- Production from unconventional reserves is witnessing widespread growth, which presents massive opportunities for the pipeline-pigging equipment business. The oil and gas extraction from unconventional offshore reserves leads to the production of a high concentration of impurities, such as bitumen, water, and carbon dioxide, which threaten the integrity of the pipeline system. This leads to the increased requirement for pipeline pigging services, which will demand the use of pipeline repair & maintenance services across the Middle East and Africa.
- Oil consumption globally increased by 5.3 million barrels per day in 2021 but remained 3.7 million barrels per day below 2019 levels.
- Hence, owing to the above points, increasing investment in Pipeline Maintenance services will drive the market during the forecast period.
Saudi Arabia fastest growing region in the Pipeline Maintenance market
- According to the Statistical review of World Energy, Saudi Arabia is the world's second-largest crude oil producer, accounting for about 12.90% of the total oil produced globally in 2022. The country is also one of the largest crude oil exporters in the world. Moreover, Saudi Arabia accounted for the second-largest proven oil reserves in the world, after Venezuela, in 2020.
- As per the Statistical review of World Energy, In Saudi Arabia, natural gas liquid production reached 1560 thousand barrels per day in 2021, a 0.3% increase from 2010.
- As of 2021, Saudi Aramco, the national oil company, operated more than 90 pipelines and 12,000 miles of crude oil and petroleum product pipelines throughout the country, all of which linked the production areas to the processing facilities, export terminals, and consumption centers.
- The country has an extensive natural gas distribution network. Built in 1975, Master Gas System (MGS), transports natural gas from associated and non-associated fields to natural gas processing plants, which separate the NGLs. The NGLs are then transported to the fractionation plants in Ju'aymah, Yanbu, and the Shaybah field plant.
- The demand for natural gas, particularly feedstock delivery to petrochemical plants, has driven the expansion of MGS over the past few years. Driven by the country's increasing consumption of natural gas, the development of MGS is essential in the coming years. Furthermore, several additions to MGS are in the planning or construction phases. The expansion plans include installing about 250 miles of natural gas lines along the East-West oil pipeline. The pipeline will transport gas to plants at Yanbu, and natural gas lines in Central Saudi Arabia, and the pipeline connecting Riyadh and the Shedgum natural gas plant.
- Addtionally, Saudi Arabia also has the world's fifth-largest estimated shale gas reserve. Thus, it has great potential to replicate North America's unconventional reserve development which is expected to create tremendous oppurtunities for the pipline maintenaince market.
- Hence, owing to the above points, Saudi Arabia is expected to see significant market growth in the Pipeline Maintenance market during the forecast period.