Tool Joints as a Foothold in the Drillpipe Market

Entering the market for drillpipe in Mexico has not been easy for Command Energy Services, a Canadian company specialized in drillpipe and drill stem accessories. Emilio Lanzagorta, Director General of Command Energy Services Mexico, explains that Tenaris Tamsa currently has the contract for supplying Pemex with all of its drillpipe. As a result, the company has had to think creatively about how to develop its business in the country. “As the market for drillpipe in Mexico is covered,” Lanzagorta points out, “we had to look at different ways to gain a foothold in the market. The way that we have found to do this is through tool joints.”

Tool joints are drillpipe components, used to connect two pieces of pipe together. They are normally manufactured separately from the drillpipe, and later welded on. The standard for tool joints in the oil and gas industry is the API standard. “Command Energy developed Command Enhanced Torque (CET), a premium connection, successfully introduced into the Mexican market, double- shouldered to increase torque, and therefore ideal for directional drilling, or any situation where there is over-torque in the drillstring. The connection is also a lot easier and faster to make and break than the double shouldered connections already in the market,” Lanzagorta says. Double-shouldered joints make for a solid fit into the female section of a drillpipe, with the nose of the pin touching the bottom of the box, or female part of the joint, creating a firm structure that is not found with API joints.

In order to get the tool joints introduced in Mexico, Lanzagorta is working with Tenaris Tamsa in an effort to get the product introduced into the company’s catalogue.Although Tenaris Tamsa has its own tool joints after the acquisition of Hydrill, Lanzagorta hopes that the similarities between the API tool joint and the Command Energy tool joint, as well as the advantages his companies joint offers, will make it tempting for Tenaris Tamsa to add it to the list of products they sell. “If we can make it into the market with our connection, we have the potential to grow very fast in Mexico: as well as just selling the product, we have the opportunity to develop a service business too,” he says.