Engaging degradation mechanisms of materials in a tourney. An investigation into the philosophy of material selection as a mitigating measure and strategy

Abstract

The aim of this project is to compare some important factors such as safety and environmental aspects, life cycle costing, reliability, availability and fabrication for selecting materials for flowlines for comparative study between carbon steel as a current practice with respect to various corrosion resistance alloys as an alternatives. In order to do that it is necessary to address all possible degradation mechanisms and the conditions that intensify the degradation process with respect to different types of materials like carbon steel, 316 stainless steel, 6MO stainless steel, Duplex stainless steel and titanium in the upstream production flowlines. The guidance has been supplemented with practical examples and descriptions of how the degradation mitigation measures can be applied to control the major threats experienced within the industry. Even though oil and gas industries have implemented mitigation measures to reduce the level of degradation, still it is considered to be one of the major problems. Therefore it is necessary to analyze the protection measures are effective enough with the current material quality. This study examines the degradation issues affecting the offshore pipelines in the North Sea and evaluating important factors, which is identified from the experience of the various authors and their companies.