BOLLATE, Italy, May 6, 2013– Solvay Specialty Polymers is celebrating its 15th anniversary as the global supplier of Solef® 60512 polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) resin for the oil and gas industry. Since its commercial development in 1998, Solef® 60512 has become the material of choice for demanding applications such as flexible risers, umbilicals, pipe liners, and high-performance pipes and tubing.
One of the leading suppliers of highly engineered flexible pipe systems for offshore applications, NOV Flexibles in Denmark, also marks 15 years of producing pipe made of Solef® 60512 PVDF with no service failures ever reported. This unbroken track record dates back to 1998 when NOV Flexibles installed its first pipe in the BANFF field in the North Sea. Solef® PVDF is a key component of the company’s deep-water riser concepts, withstanding high pressure and high temperatures. NOV Flexibles uses Solef® 60512 in single-layer extrusion over the metallic carcass, a unique safety benefit in risers to prevent gas accumulation between polymeric layers.
“Solef® has an outstanding track record in terms of safety, long-term performance, and reliability in the oil and gas industry and has become the industry standard for harsh field conditions,” said Marie Schmidt, oil and gas global market manager for Solvay Specialty Polymers. “Over 700 km of pipe made of Solef® 60512 have already been produced and installed globally.”
Solef® 60512 was developed in the early 1990s specifically for offshore applications. It offers a unique combination of mechanical and thermal properties, very low permeation to fluids and gases, as well as excellent chemical resistance. It contains no plasticizer, thus ensuring safe, long-term performance with no migration or loss of additives over time. Among its many attributes, Solef® 60512 offers excellent resistance to sour gas and good chemical compatibility with supercritical CO2 at high temperature and in polluted mixtures, showing low weight increase and minimal effects on mechanical properties when exposed to this fluid commonly used as a solvent in Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR).
As an international chemical group, SOLVAY assists industries in finding and implementing ever more responsible and value-creating solutions. Solvay generates 90% of its net sales in activities where it is among the world's top three players. It serves many markets, varying from energy and the environment to automotive and aerospace or electricity and electronics, with one goal: to raise the performance of its clients and improve society's quality of life. The group is headquartered in Brussels, employs about 29,400 people in 56 countries and generated 9.9 billion euros in net sales in 2013. Solvay SA is listed as SOLB.BE on NYSE Euronext in Brussels and Paris (Bloomberg: SOLB:BB - Reuters: SOLB.BR).
