Corrosion

The North Sea is one of the most challenging and hostile working environments for oil and gas extraction in the world. Offshore installations are subject to severe environmental and operational conditions which pose significant corrosive effects from the reservoir and weather in an exposed marine environment.

Offshore Division seeks a lifecycle management approach which starts with the initial selection of appropriate materials and follows through the lifecycle with effective inspection, maintenance, repair and replacement.

• External corrosion inspection project [PDF 195KB]
  As part of HSE's current priority work on asset integrity, Offshore Division (OSD) is undertaking the external corrosion inspection project. This project aims to reduce risks from external corrosion on offshore installations through a combination of improvements to dutyholder management systems, and the physical condition of offshore installations. OSD is carrying out a programme of inspections of production installation dutyholders which started in July 2007 and is planned to finish in March 2010. Inspectors will use the external corrosion project template.

• Offshore external corrosion guide [PDF 1.6mb]
  Enables OSD inspectors to make consistent judgements about external corrosion on offshore installations hydrocarbon systems.

• Stress corrosion cracking of duplex stainless steel piping systems in hot chloride service [PDF 88KB]
  (Offshore Information Sheet 7/2007) Highlights recent experience of stress corrosion cracking that has occurred to duplex stainless steel alloys in topsides process plant. These alloys are finding increasing application where high resistance to hot liquids containing chloride is required. This guidance relates to topsides process plant only and replaces Safety Notice 3/03 (issued Dec 2003).