scholarly journals Corrosion Processes Relevant to the Integrity of Oil and Gas Facilities1

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-21
Author(s):  
Morten A. Langøy ◽  
Erik Hörnlund ◽  
Ole Jacob Næss ◽  
Rolf H. Hinderaker

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.

2002 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 669 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Heiden

This paper provides a brief overview of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the Act) and discusses the operational performance of the Act in the first 18 months.The introduction of the Act on 16 July 2000 has created a new environmental assessment and approval regime at the Commonwealth level. Proposals are no longer referred for assessment on the basis of government decisions, but on the basis of the potential for a proposal to impact upon a matter of National Environmental Significance (NES). An analysis of projects that have been referred, assessed and approved provides a useful guide to the types of activities, and the circumstances under which proposals are captured by the Act. This exercise is particularly valuable for the oil and gas sector.With a significant proportion of referrals received being generated by the petroleum industry, many issues with the administration of the Act have been identified. Environment Australia has undertaken a number of initiatives to address these concerns. Examples include involvement in the Strategic Assessment being conducted by the Department of Industry Tourism and Resources (DITR), a review of the Referral form and an undertaking to provide a more industry-specific form, and regular, high level meetings between Environment Australia, the DITR and APPEA to facilitate and streamline the working arrangements between parties.The paper also identifies areas where industry can work closely with the Commonwealth Government in new ways to achieve a balance between environmental protection and the continued development of the oil and gas industry.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 25 ◽  
Author(s):  
FJ Sanchez ◽  
OS Al-Abri

Fossil hydrocarbons are indispensables commodities that motorize the global economy, and oil and gas are two of those conventional fuels that have been extracted and processed for over a century. During last decade, operators face challenges discovering and developing reservoirs commonly found up to several kilometers underground, for which advanced technologies are developed through different research programs. In order to optimize the current processes to drill and construct oil/gas wells, a large number of mechanical technologies discovered centuries ago by diverse sectors are implemented by well engineers. In petroleum industry, the ancient tube forming manufacturing process founds an application once well engineers intend to produce from reservoirs that cannot be reached unless previous and shallower troublesome formations are isolated. Solid expandable tubular is, for instance, one of those technologies developed to mitigate drilling problems and optimize the well delivery process. It consists of in-situ expansion of a steel-based tube that is attained by pushing/pulling a solid mandrel, which permanently enlarge its diameters. This non-linear expansion process is strongly affected by the material properties of the tubular, its geometry, and the pipe/mandrel contact surface. The anticipated force required to deform long sections of the pipe in an uncontrollable expansion environment, might jeopardize mechanical properties of the pipe and the well structural integrity. Scientific-based solutions, that depend on sound theoretical formulation and are validated through experiments, will help to understand possible tubular failure mechanisms during its operational life. This work is aimed to study the effect of different loading/boundary conditions on mechanical/physical properties of the pipe after expansion. First, full-scale experiments were conducted to evaluate the geometrical and behavioral changes. Second, simulation of deformation process was done using finite element method and validated against experimental results to assess the effects on the post-expansion tubular properties. Finally, the authors bring a comparison study where in a semi-analytical model is used to predict the force required for expansion. 


Author(s):  
Abe Nezamian ◽  
Robert J. Nicolson ◽  
Dorel Iosif

A large number of the old oil and gas facilities have reached or exceeded their initial design life. With a continued requirement to produce oil or gas, either from the original fields or as a base for neighbouring subsea completions, many of these respective offshore installations are likely to remain operational for a period of time in the foreseeable future. The ageing offshore infrastructure presents a constant and growing challenge. Ageing is characterised by deterioration, change in operational conditions or accidental damages which, in the severe operational environment offshore, can be significant with serious consequences for installation integrity if not managed adequately and efficiently. In order to ensure technical and operational integrity of these ageing facilities, the fitness for service of these offshore structures should be maintained. The maintenance of structural integrity is a significant consideration in the safety management and life extension of offshore installations. Detailed integrity assessments are needed to demonstrate that there is sufficient technical, operational and organisational integrity to continue safe operation throughout a life extension. Information on history, characteristic data, condition data and inspection results are required to assess the current state and to predict the future state of the facility and the possible life extension. This paper presents state of art practices in life extension of existing offshore structures and an overview of various aspects of ageing related to offshore facilities, represented risk to the integrity of a facility and the required procedures and re assessment criteria for deciding on life extension. This paper also provides an overall view in the structural requirements, justifications and calibrations of the original design for the life extension to maintain the safety level by means of a maintenance and inspection programs balancing the ageing mechanisms and improving the reliability of assessment results.


Author(s):  
Agnes Marie Horn ◽  
Per Egil Kvaale ◽  
Mons Hauge

There is a lack of rules and standards that provide guidelines for material selection and qualification of materials for offshore and onshore structures in arctic areas. Many current standards for low temperature applications such as cryogenic piping and process systems do not reflect the need for low-cost bulk materials for large volume applications such as pipelines and production facilities. The growing focus on oil and gas exploration in arctic areas has raised the need for new standards and industry practice that supports cost effective and safe installation and operation of production and transport facilities in the cold climate. There are materials today that are applicable for low temperature conditions. The grades are often highly alloyed (typically 3–9% Ni) with good toughness properties, but these alloys are expensive compared to conventional steel material grades. Such materials may not be applicable in pipelines, structures and process plants. This challenge can be met in two ways. First, structural steels that are capable of being welded and operated in the cold climate should be developed and qualified. Second, materials for forged and casted components that can be welded to the structural steels should be developed and qualified to fit into the integrated structure or pipeline system. Some actions have been taken to develop new standards e.g. within ISO19906, and actions are being taken in Russia to harmonize their specifications with the international standards, but this is a comprehensive job and the work must be executed in parallel with the development of new steels and welding technology.


Author(s):  
Pedro Vassalo Maia da Costa ◽  
Alvaro Maia da Costa ◽  
Julio Romano Meneghini ◽  
Kazuo Nishimoto ◽  
Gustavo Assi ◽  
...  

Abstract In 2006, giant oilfields were discovered in Brazil in a water depth of ∼ 2200 m and under a caprock of 2000 m of continues salt rock overlaying the reservoirs, called pre-salt. Currently more than a half of the Brazilian oil and gas production comes from these reservoirs. However, some of these assets have big Oil & Gas ratio with a high level of CO2 contamination, which are currently being reinjected in the reservoirs. This procedure gradually increases the CO2 content associated with the oil extracted, reducing well productivity and leading to high costs of CO2 and CH4 separation by the membrane technology. The Research Center for Gas Innovation (RCGI) located at the State University of São Paulo in Brasil, sponsored by Shell Brazil, is developing a technology that uses the thick layer of salt rock overlying the pre-salt reservoirs to build caverns where the contaminated gas will be injected and decontaminated. After 2 years of extensive research, several studies have been carried out to analyze the main critical aspects of the technology in order to evaluate its feasibility, and now it has been decided to advance to the field proof stage. The salt dome studied can accommodate the construction of 15 caverns, thus providing the confinement of approximately 108 million tons of CO2. Before the system be construct in full scale, it was decided to initially build an experimental cavern with smaller size to obtain field parameters of the final design of the caverns. This paper describes this development denominated Offshore Salt Cavern Ultra-deep Water CCS System, that aims to perform the natural gas storage, a natural gravitational separation between CO2 / CH4 inside the caverns, and the confinement of CO2 (CCS). It presents important results related to structural integrity analysis of the giant and experimental caverns, well design using the same methodology applied in more than 200 projects of the pre-salt oil wells, instrumentation plan of the experimental cavern, storage capacities and other relevant data. If the economics proves feasible, this offshore gas storage station will be the first of its kind and possibly the biggest CCS Project in the world.


Author(s):  
R. V. Booler ◽  
W. L. Daniels ◽  
J. P. Taggart

Crucial decisions, based upon NDE results, are made regarding the operation of safety critical components. Materials investigations identify degradation mechanisms, and defect assessments determine what defects are tolerable, but NDE is generally the only method of determining whether unacceptable defects actually exist in a component. Consequently, it is vital that we have confidence in the NDE results. This paper describes the measures that are taken to ensure confidence in the NDE being applied and the interactions that are needed with other structural integrity disciplines. In particular, we describe the role of Inspection Qualification as a formal process that has been adopted to address the uncertainties in NDE performance identified through round robin trials. Although the examples used are from the nuclear industry they pertain to any industry sector where NDE plays an important role in assessing structural integrity. Increasing interest in applying risk-informed inspection scopes, plant life extension and the world-wide nuclear new build programme are imposing new requirements on NDE of safety-critical components. We describe how the NDE community is responding to these challenges in providing quantitative inspection information (probability of detection) and maintaining a high level of confidence in the results. The paper aims to inform other structural integrity disciplines and plant operators of the impact their decisions may have on the NDE. For example, the pessimisms and safety margins applied to determine acceptance standards often impose extremely onerous requirements on the NDE resulting in long development times and high cost. In addition we discuss how the NDE can impact on the decisions regarding safe and reliable operation of plant.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sayyad Zahid Qamar ◽  
Maaz Akhtar ◽  
Tasneem Pervez

Swelling elastomers are a new breed of advanced polymers, and found increasing use in drilling of difficult oil and gas wells. It is important to know how an elastomer will behave under a given set of well conditions, especially after the initial quick-swell period. Good design depends on appropriate material selection. Results are presented in this chapter from experimental and numerical studies conducted to analyze how compressive and bulk behavior of actual oilfield elastomers changes due to swelling. Six key attributes of swelling elastomers needed for design improvement and performance analysis of elastomer seals are discussed: four mechanical properties (elastic modulus E, bulk modulus K, shear modulus G, and Poisson’s ratio ν), and two polymer structure characteristics (cross-link chain density NC, and average molecular weight MC). These parameters were experimentally determined before and after various stages of swelling for two different swelling elastomers being currently used by the regional petroleum industry, in low and high salinity brines. To strengthen the experimental results, and to be able to forecast for other elastomer materials and well conditions, tests were also simulated using the commercial FEM package ABAQUS, using the best available hyperelastic material models.


2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-424
Author(s):  
Jesse Salah Ovadia ◽  
Jasper Abembia Ayelazuno ◽  
James Van Alstine

ABSTRACTWith much fanfare, Ghana's Jubilee Oil Field was discovered in 2007 and began producing oil in 2010. In the six coastal districts nearest the offshore fields, expectations of oil-backed development have been raised. However, there is growing concern over what locals perceive to be negative impacts of oil and gas production. Based on field research conducted in 2010 and 2015 in the same communities in each district, this paper presents a longitudinal study of the impacts (real and perceived) of oil and gas production in Ghana. With few identifiable benefits beyond corporate social responsibility projects often disconnected from local development priorities, communities are growing angrier at their loss of livelihoods, increased social ills and dispossession from land and ocean. Assuming that others must be benefiting from the petroleum resources being extracted near their communities, there is growing frustration. High expectations, real and perceived grievances, and increasing social fragmentation threaten to lead to conflict and underdevelopment.


2014 ◽  
Vol 952 ◽  
pp. 20-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xue Jun Xie

The selection of an optimal material is an important aspect of design for mechanical, electrical, thermal, chemical or other application. Many factors (attributes) need to be considered in material selection process, and thus material selection problem is a multi-attribute decision making (MADM) problem. This paper proposes a new MADM method for material selection problem. G1 method does not need to test consistency of the judgment matrix. Thus it is better than AHP. In this paper, firstly, we use the G1 method to determine the attribute weight. Then TOPSIS method is used to calculate the closeness of the candidate materials with respect positive solution. A practical material selection case is used to demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 146-152
Author(s):  
E. V. ANDRIANOVA ◽  
◽  
P. S. SHCHERBACHENKO ◽  

This article discusses and analyzes the most popular standards of non-financial reporting, which has a significant impact on the transformation of the business environment. Already, domestic and foreign companies with a high level of responsibility are beginning to publish non-financial statements in addition to financial statements, which is an additional tool for communication with stakeholders and a new source of information about their activities. To date, reports of this type are clearly unregulated, there are no verification standards, however, there is already a positive trend and the active introduction of non-financial indicators in the regular reporting of companies.


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