Project Description

The Los Ramones Natural Gas Pipeline project is the largest energy infrastructure investment in Mexico in 40 years. The pipeline supports a growing Mexican economy and has nearly tripled the import capacity of natural gas from 1.3 billion to 3.4 billion cubic feet per day. Pemex-Gas y Petroquímica Básica, the pipeline owner, worked with several special-purpose companies to develop four pipelines with a combined length of 1,000 km. The estimated investment of 55 billion pesos brings natural gas from the Southern Region of the United States into Mexico through Los Ramones. The steel pipeline requires an external coating to provide optimum long-term protection against the corrosive elements associated with in-ground pipeline installations.

Los Ramones PipelineQuality Coatings Delivered On Site, On Time, Every Day

Customer Challenge

Tubacero, the leading gas pipe manufacturer in Mexico, selected Bredero-Shaw as the pipe coater for the project. With a world-class

pipe coating plant in Monterrey, Mexico, Bredero-Shaw is ISO 9001:2008 certified and offers one of the broadest anti-corrosive pipe

coating product lines available in the world.

With tight parameters and a stringent timeline for this project, Bredero-Shaw had two critical requirements for its coating supplier. First,

the supplier needed to provide a fusion-bonded epoxy (FBE) coating certified to the CSA Z245.20 international quality standard for

plant-applied external coatings used on steel pipe. The Valspar Pipeclad® FBE powder coating filled the first requirement. Valspar Pipeclad

had been used by Bredero-Shaw on other pipe coating projects that required a tightly-controlled application process to ensure the

coating line ran as efficiently as possible. This was another key selling feature for Bredero-Shaw.

The second requirement was that Bredero-Shaw needed a reliable partner to produce and deliver up to 10 tons of coatings, on time

every day, so that the continuous production process would not be impacted. The pipe coating line would be running 24 hours a day, for

six months non-stop. The massive coating volumes needed to be delivered with precise timing, so Bredero-Shaw could deliver the coated

pipe to the pipeline installers to meet their extremely tight schedule. Any delay or interruption could cause a line shut down that would

be costly for the project, idle the pipe coating crew and delay pipeline field installation.

Bredero-Shaw selected Valspar as its coating supplier because of a successful partnership on previous projects that required high-quality

coatings and exceptional service.

Valspar Solution The Valspar service team in Mexico partnered closely with the Valspar U.S. team to manage production and delivery of the coating throughout the project. Valspar Pipeclad was manufactured in the Charlotte, North Carolina, and Covington, Georgia, production plants. Next, the coating was shipped to the Valspar distribution facility in Cíenega de Flores, Mexico.

From the distribution facility, Valspar loaded eight to 10 tons of Pipeclad 2000 powder coating each day on a truck for delivery to the Bredero-Shaw Monterrey facility. Bredero-Shaw only had the capacity to store 15 tons of coating at any one time, which wouldn’t even cover two days of production. It was a delicate balance to ensure there was never too much, or never too little, coating in stock each day.

Product Highlights: Valspar Pipeclad Coating Valspar Pipeclad® 2000 FBE powder coatings protect more than 100,000 km of pipeline around the world. That’s enough pipe to circle the globe two-and-a-half times. The CSA Z245.20-approved coating gives customers excellent adhesion, maximum flexibility and strong chemical resistance. It protects the pipe during manufacturing, transportation and installation – and especially protects pipelines during operation from underground soil stress, bacteria and fungus attacks, soil acids and alkalis. Pipeclad also delivers long-term performance against salt water, wastewater, petrochemicals, solvents and corrosive gases. The durable finish provides outstanding resistance to cracking, cold flow and softening over a wide temperature range.

Customer Results Valspar produced and delivered eight to 10 tons of Valspar Pipeclad 2000 FBE powder coating daily for six months, and the Bredero-Shaw coating line maintained 100% up-time throughout the pipe coating production run. The strong partnership with Valspar supported Bredero-Shaw’s success in delivering on schedule 200 km of pipeline for the Los Ramones project.

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