Ageing of pipeline networks is of major concern to Oil & Gas operators who need to ensure
safe operation, avoidance of environmental pollution, and fitness for purpose of major
producing assets. In this context, corrosion control is one of the major challenges that they are
faced with on existing pipeline networks.
This paper describes a semi-quantitative methodology for assessing the corrosion likelihood of
existing production pipelines which was developed by the Company and applied over its
worldwide operations.
In order to be of any real value, it has to be considered necessary that this corrosion evaluation
had to:
- Be consistent across the entire network (even worldwide),
- Deal with past and present corrosive conditions seen by each pipeline,
- Consider the efficiency of mitigation actions,
- Take into account available inspection data, or deal with the non-availability of said
Data
This methodology is apparently less formal than the use of fully quantitative mechanistic
models. However, it is believed to result in a higher degree of confidence as it better covers
than any tool:
- The wide variety of corrosion and corrosion control events,
- And the variability of service conditions,
that any pipeline experiences over its whole life time. It also places the direct accountability of
the evaluation on people in charge, not on models.
Key Words: Pipeline – Corrosion evaluation