An alliance has been formed between North American Western Asia Holdings (NAWAH), US Steel Tubular Products (a subsidiary of US Steel) and MRC Global with the sole objective of supplying oil well equipment to Iraq.
The idea is to supply a number of oil andgas companies engaged in developing oil and gas fields in Southern Iraq.
The consortium plans to provide an initial inventory of oil well equipment and then expand Iraq’s in-country supply of the same materials as and when oil well demand increases. The first shipment of oil well material is expected to arrive in Iraq in early May.
Dubai-based NAWAH’s responsibility will be the supply of port operations and supply and distribution centres. US Steel Tubular Products brings over 100 years of experience serving global energy markets and MRC Global is a distributor of pipes, valves and fitting products and services to both energy and industrial markets.
George Thompson, vice president (tubular commercial) at US Steel said that helping Iraq to become economically sustainable was ‘an enormous opportunity’. He said the company was thrilled to be a part of what he called an ‘historically significant’ moment.
US Steel Tubular Products claims to be the largest fully integrated tubular products manufacturer in North America and has an annual production capability of 2.8 million net tons. The energy industry worldwide relies upon the company’s casing, tubing, line pipe, connections and couplings to locate, retrieve, transport and refine oil and natural gas products.
“Leveraging the reputation that U.S. Steel Tubular Products has built globally with its energy tubular products, combined with the expansive portfolio of pipes, valves, fittings and flanges that MRC Global supplies across the globe and NAWAH’s regional and in-country operational expertise, we believe that this consortium can be a successful part of Iraq’s energy infrastructure rebuilding,” said Rory Isaac, MRC Global executive vice president – international operations.