Upstream oil production assets, including oil production pipeline network and gas oil water separation facilities, play a dominant role in sustaining production targets to meet customer requirements. Corrosion management of such assets encompasses various phases, such as design, construction, operation, and decommissioning. Proper engineering design and sound construction practices combined with effective monitoring are essential to manage and maintain the corrosion of these assets within acceptable limits. Some of the considerations taken into account during design include: safety, environment, pressure, temperature, material availability, delivery time, and cost. Operating these assets outside of the design boundaries could influence the corrosion process, significantly impacting integrity. Close monitoring of operating parameters, along with identifying the corrosion by employing appropriate inspection techniques, and implementing timely corrective measures, are of paramount importance to preserving the integrity of these critical assets, which otherwise could lead to safety and environmental issues. This paper highlights three case studies involving the importance of cathodic protection monitoring, and failure analysis of an oil pipeline, along with corrosion inhibitor optimization efforts carried out to ensure asset integrity.

Erosion of piping systems is a significant issue for many operators of hydrocarbon infrastructure causing a significant loss in revenue and an increase in installations, repair and maintenance costs. Currently, the use of erosion resistant coatings, reduction of flow rates and replacement/repair are the only mitigation controls against erosion. INTECSEA has been developing a novel Erosion Control Technology (ECT) that can reduce the impact of erosion on piping via the strategic placement of custom engineered inserts into the product stream. The two phases of ECT prototype testing under real-field multiphase conditions representing gas condensate fields have been performed at the E/CRC (The University of Tulsa). The superficial gas velocity (VSG) was varied from 31 m/s to 23 m/s with the superficial liquid velocity (VSL) fixed at 0.04 m/s and the sand particles were varied from 300 μm to 75 μm. The metal loss due to erosion was monitored using a set of UT probes in two consecutive elbows spaced 11D apart oriented in a vertical-horizontal loop. The erosion tests using prototype ECT inserts have shown a significant reduction in erosion at both the gas flow conditions. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been a backbone in developing this technology and CFD results have shown good correlation with the physical tests. Discussions with leading operators for a field trial targeted for 2020 is ongoing.

The authors will demonstrate that deploying only a modest number of point measurement devices in an area of elevated localized corrosion risk will provide the best possible combination of probability of detection (POD) as well as ongoing wall thickness monitoring for localized corrosion attack.