Corrosion Processes Relevant to the Integrity of Oil and Gas Facilities1

Abstract

The Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) Norway will set the terms for and follow up that players in the Norwegian petroleum industry maintain a high level of health, safety and the environment and emergency preparedness, and thereby contribute to creating the highest possible value for society. Ensuring good material selection process and structural integrity is an important effort where different corrosion forms are of concern and corrosion protection measures of interest, especially in respect to major accidents.PSA addresses corrosion in rules and regulations, requiring “robust material selection”, with reference to international standards and guidelines. The operators addressing and monitoring of the corrosion effects on the process and structural integrity by incident reporting, reviews and site audits are the key tools for PSA in assessing the corrosion challenges and control in the industry.It is of paramount importance to avoid major accidents. The subject of this paper is to address the challenges with material degradation in ageing structures, and the challenges associated with life extension considerations. Corrosion plays a major role in this respect; especially PSA is concerned with corrosion under insulation (CUI). This paper presents some of our work in these areas.