Corrosion Management
Material selection recommendations on a project are supported and supplemented by comprehensive corrosion, erosion, and souring reviews using various software packages.
Corrosion Management
Our engineering support also extends to developing and coordinating corrosion testing and inhibitor qualification programs, to validate both material and chemical selection choices. This exercise also involves the recommendation, specification and commissioning of corrosion probes and sand monitors. In addition, the team extends its expertise to help develop and implement surveillance programs to ensure ongoing asset integrity through the life of the development.
Corrosion engineering management also extends to the troubleshooting of corrosion problems on operating facilities. This includes the management and mitigation of Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) and microbiologically induced corrosion (MIC) modeling and failure mechanisms.
Downhole & Subsea Materials Selection and Qualification Erosion/Corrosion Risk Assessment and Modeling Scaling Studies (Formation Risk, Removal and Mitigation Strategies)
Topsides materials Corrosion Monitoring, and Erosion Monitoring Systems
Risk-Based Assessment and Inspection Planning Troubleshooting Corrosion Problems on Operating Facilities
Consult a Specialist
Engineering Manager | Materials, Corrosion & Integrity
NOLA Office Team
Bruce is a chemical and materials engineering specialist with over 40 years in the energy industry. He has worked for Shell Development and Shell Offshore in the materials and corrosion specialty and has spent the last 25 years working as a project and process consultant for both onshore and offshore developments ranging in size from a single well or vessel upgrades to many of the biggest offshore projects in the world.
Phone: 281.870.8455
Resources
So your pipe burst, your pump shaft snapped, or your welded joint split, and you need to figure out why and how to fix it. The next steps you take can make the difference between finding answers and leaving the mystery unsolved until the next failure.
This paper is Part II of a two-part series intended to narrate the history, some of which has been forgotten over time, leading up to the publication of the first Material Requirement (MR-01-75) standard prepared by NACE and its subsequent auxiliary standards.
This is Part I of a two-part series intended to narrate the “lost” history leading up to the publication of the first Material Requirement (MR-01-75) standard prepared by NACE (now AMPP) and its subsequent auxiliary standards.
Circuitization aims to reduce overhead inspection costs through the thoughtful break down of a system into smaller sections.
The building blocks of a robust inspection program are condition monitoring locations (CMLs). As defined by API 510 and API 570, CMLs are designated locations on pressure vessels or piping systems where periodic external examinations are conducted to assess condition.
This article will outline the challenges during integrity management, and the best practices that ultimately deliver a coordinated, effective, and cost-optimized IM plan.
Oil well stimulation is commonly undertaken using aqueous solutions of hydrochloric acid (HCl), hydrofluoric acid (HF), organic acids or mixture. The use of these acids will open new channels near the wellbore region for the oil and gas flow through and will result in increased production.
The following material properties are important when understanding the limitations of API 5CT high strength steels: yield strength (YS), Charpy V-notch (CVN) impact energy, hardness and tempering.
The mechanisms that can lead to catastrophic failures of equipment in the oil and gas industry due to the presence of mercury are briefly presented in this GATEKEEPER.
This GATEKEEPER provides a general overview of the epoxy coatings used in offshore oil and gas service and discusses common causes of premature coating failure as well as factors affect coating quality.
The flow of metal during Friction Stir Welding is clarified using a faying surface tracer and a nib frozen in place during welding. It is shown that material is transported by two processes.
Acidizing involves pumping acid into a wellbore or geologic formation that is capable of producing oil and/or gas. The purpose of acidizing is to improve a well’s productivity or injectivity after production has declined 4.
Annulus Pressure Management refers to an engineered approach ensuring that casing annulus pressures do not challenge the well’s integrity during the life of the well.
In order to avoid potential riser failures or replacement campaigns for anticipated service lives that may extend to 30 years or more, process facility components such as risers and flowline systems must now be subjected to more enhanced integrity monitoring through the whole of their service life.
Material selection is a nuanced process. A primary assessment based on environmental and operating conditions enables identification of outright inappropriate materials and allows a general selection to be made.
Determination of the proper 13Cr grade for sour service involves the investigation of domain diagrams, and often requires further fitness-for-service testing.
Corrosion in field conditions can be extremely slow, thus accelerated test methods have been designed to enable evaluation and prediction of long-term corrosion behavior. In general, corrosion testing is conducted by exposing small samples of a material to the desired environment for a relatively short period of time, then evaluating the type and severity of corrosion in order to select materials or chemicals that will maximize the life of the part in question.
As TOL corrosion occurs in wet gas lines operated in stratified flow, the corrosion inhibitor or other corrosion protection chemicals such as mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) injected into the system remain at the bottom of the line and are not able to protect the top of the line.
The difficulty in selecting the materials of construction for the topsides portion of seawater injection systems is associated with uncertainty around the reliability and performance of their associated oxygen removal systems.
Corrosion modeling can be performed very early in project development to estimate the feasibility of carbon steel use. It can also augment many different aspects of the design and operations of sweet flowlines. To achieve this, data used for corrosion modeling must be sourced and attributed to the task in question.
CO2 corrosion modeling is a common practice to evaluate carbon steel flowlines and piping, both with and without inhibition, to ensure they achieve their intended design life. Modeling is also used to help determine if a corrosion resistant alloy should be used and can also be utilized to determine corrosion allowance and inhibition requirements.
Iron solid formation in the MEG regeneration system has been a recurring issue in wet gas pipeline systems.
Common pitfalls during cathodic protection (CP) design include electrical continuity, current drain, hydrogen embrittlement of susceptible alloys, anode placement, anode chemistry, and test point placement.
Sulfate removal units (SRU) are able to reduce the sulfate content of injected seawater by filtering the water prior to introduction downhole. There are many benefits in terms of both flow assurance and economics to be gained from sulfate removal
GATE, LLC’s expertise in material selection has identified several important environmental conditions that should be considered when selecting 13Cr steels for oil and gas use: acidizing and acid flowback, flowing production environment, and shut-in environment.
GATE, LLC has been developing testing guidelines to validate flexible pipe materials for sour service use as flowlines and risers. Flexible pipe qualification requires the evaluation of each material separately in specific conditions, as well as detailed assessment of end-connector properties, and the performance of the flexible pipe as a whole.
Mechanical Testing, Tensile Testing, Harness Testing, Materials Chemical Analysis, Metallographic Evaluations, Fracture surface Evaluations, Microstructural Characterization, and Customized Testing
Metallics and Non Metallics Materials Selection, Field Corrosion Studies, Fit-for Service Assessment, Integrity Assessments and Life Extension Engineering Assessments
