The offshore heavy oil project uses Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO)
structural tanks to act as oil separators (washing tanks) a vital requirement. These tanks
operate with a continuous layer of produced water at high operational temperatures and high
residence time, creating a critical corrosive environment. This condition is far beyond typical
conditions for tankers and makes the development of a special test necessary to qualify paint
systems for that condition. Traditionally the qualification of paint systems in Brazil offshore
units is based on NACE TM-0104 and ISO 20340 standards. But these standards have a test
protocol based on physical/mechanical tests and corrosion tests. However, for this specific
case, it did not suffice. Thus, a specific test was developed for washing tanks, which can
evaluate simultaneously both corrosion and mechanical properties. This paper presents the
development of a new test to simulate the behavior of paint systems submitted to cyclic
tension in coatings in very corrosive environments (high salinity, CO2, and high temperature).
Keywords: tankers, coatings, fatigue, heavy oil, salinity