Corrosion Management Framework: A structured Approach to Managing Corrosion in Oil and Gas Facilities

Abstract

The rising cost of corrosion is alarming especially in ageing oil and gas production facilities. This situation is necessitated majorly by absence of corrosion management framework (CMF) which is a blueprint for identification and mitigation of common threats associated with corrosion in production assets. This paper explores the gains, challenges and improvement areas arising from development and implementation of robust corrosion management framework in fifty (50) oil and gas facilities. The CMF was developed and implemented using threat identification, barrier design and barrier maintenance philosophy. The result of the CMF implementation revealed that most of these facilities are laced with unmitigated corrosion threats which predisposes the assets to hydrocarbon leaks. The results also provide insight as per the status of the pressure equipment, information for development of risk-based inspection plan and continuous improvement of corrosion management system. Some of the challenges encountered in effective CMF implementation for these facilities includes incompleteness of inspection data, unavailability of design data, absence of leadership commitment, competence gap and cost. This study has shown that CMF implementation is very critical in demonstrating sustainable asset integrity management and return on investment (ROI). However, to deepen the gains of CMF implementation in asset integrity management, there is need to have a well-defined roles and responsibilities, clear leadership commitment, visible corrosion management policy, digitalization of corrosion and inspection data acquisition, as well as competence development.