Corrosion Management for the Oil and Gas Industries: A key to safeguard Infrastructure and critical supplies.

Corrosion Management for the Oil and Gas Industries: A key to safeguard Infrastructure and critical supplies.

Corrosion is an unfortunate given in the oil and gas industry. The pipelines and vast infrastructure, some of which is over half a century old, is subject to corrosion. If that corrosion goes undetected, the results can be disastrous, and very costly. Only with proper attention to safeguards, maintenance and modern protective technologies can the world's oil supplies remain steady, and the environment safe from disaster.

According to a 2002 US Federal Highway Administration study on metallic corrosion across all industrial sectors, corrosion is the main factor that affects the longevity and reliability of pipelines and nearly $7 billion a year is spent in corrosion-related costs. The expenses related to maintenance and reactive repairs, as well as the public safety and environmental factors involved, should place corrosion in the highest priority, both from the oil and gas industry's perspective as well as from a public policy perspective. While money must be spent in assessment, risk management, and maintenance, it is far less when compared to the alternative of having to replace pipelines and deal with the destructive after-effects in the surrounding environment. Therefore the process of having to make sure that corrosion prevention in pipelines, storage tanks and other critical infrastructure and supplies becomes a more vested solution.

An asset corrosion management system (CMS) will help protect against these dangerous and expensive threats. Corrosion management is part of an overall system, which develops, implements, reviews, and maintains both policy and strategy for managing, mitigating and preventing corrosion. While it may not be possible to completely eliminate any instance of corrosion and the leakage that results, proper attention, maintenance and technology will keep it to a manageable level.

It all starts with Paperwork

Like most other systems, a corrosion management system doesn't start in the oil field, it starts on paper, with strategy. An in-depth review of the current scenario and potential threat scenarios, a review of the integrity of all existing systems, followed by a review of available mitigating techniques and technologies all contributes to the creation of the all-important strategic document that guides the actual implementation of the corrosion management program.

Corrosion management isn't purely a reactive approach that treats corrosion after it has already begun. The place to begin after the strategic session is during the design phase, where engineering and design principles are applied before any pipes are even put in the ground. This ensures that the best materials are used, and the most appropriate anti-corrosive technologies are integrated.

Good preparation is the best approach. When pipelines lay in hostile environments or very remote territories, maintenance becomes more difficult and costly simply because of the access limitations. The biggest part of battling corrosion is in the planning and routine maintenance and inspection, particularly when monitoring can be done from a remote basis.

The Missing Link

A corrosion management system is sometimes not adopted post-commissioning, simply because of confusion from the beginning. The oil pipeline operator may mistakenly believe that all of the management tools have already been considered in the design phase by the engineer, so no further management system is needed. This is a major misunderstanding and a big mistake, which can lead to an increased risk of failure and higher costs down the line, due to lack of corrosion management tools. At that point, corrosion mitigation becomes an afterthought and a reactive process that is much more costly.

What is Corrosion Management?

Corrosion management isn't a single piece of technology or a single process. Rather, it is a management discipline that continuously reviews all engineering considerations, regularly monitors the entire system's performance, and evaluates the effectiveness of any corrosion management technologies after commissioning. The evaluation phase constantly evaluates data and looks at key performance indicators to determine levels of corrosion and the relative effectiveness of anti-corrosion techniques that have been applied.

Starting with an integrity review process, data is gathered at the beginning stage of the corrosion management process, including inspection data. This allows for a risk assessment to be carried out, then finally the creation of a corrosion management strategy meant to protect the asset. This review process will help to determine what level of inspection will be required, what mitigation processes need to take place, and what type of monitoring needs to be in place.

The initial integrity review process, which takes place before implementation, is perhaps the most important, and allows the project to progress more effectively while also preventing and rectifying many common corrosion issues. Only with a good integrity review can an adequate corrosion management plan be created.

The Right People with the Right Knowledge

One of the biggest shortcomings in the field of corrosion management is the lack of skilled personnel. The industry needs skilled engineers understand the industry, the chemistry of corrosion and the technologies required to address it.

Protecting the integrity of oil and gas assets depends both on effective corrosion engineering, and corrosion management. Corrosion management however, is often ignored, because of a lack of training on the engineering side, or the incorrect perception that the engineering phase will necessarily address all of the corrosion management requirements. The problem lies in the educational system, where corrosion engineers are taught topics that are associated mostly with the design stage of an oil and gas asset. Corrosion management, on the other hand, is more concerned with post-commissioning phases. The result is a serious training gap.

It is therefore necessary to consider both corrosion engineering and corrosion management, as two separate disciplines, to achieve the most effective results. Its of high importance that skilled professionals need to be equipped in both areas, and have prior expedience in highly effective corrosion management technologies that is desperately needed by the oil and gas industry.

About the Author

The article is provided to Corrosionist.com by Zerust Oil and Gas.

Northern Technologies International Corp (NTIC), creator of Zerust and other corrosion inhibiting solutions and technologies, is your corrosion management partner. Delivering comprehensive corrosion prevention technologies meant to be a part of your overall corrosion management program, NTIC goes beyond just preventing corrosion, we act as your strategic partner in end-to-end corrosion management, from planning to post-deployment.

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