An Integrated Approach to Corrosion Management of Ageing Offshore Assets

摘要

Proactive corrosion management is essential in maintaining the integrity of offshore assets, particularly for systems operating beyond their original design life. The UK Regulator (HSE) has recently put in place an initiative (KP4) which requires duty holders to specifically address the issues of ageing assets and to justify how they will effectively manage the integrity of such assets into the future. Traditionally topsides process plant, subsea pipelines and onshore terminals have been subjected to individual corrosion management schemes, but to meet the requirements of KP4 it is felt that an approach that brings the corrosion management of these individual components into a unified Corrosion Management Scheme (CMS) will prove beneficial. A CMS was developed, in collaboration with a major North Sea operator, over a number of years for a variety of offshore assets that are approaching or exceeding their design life. The CMS is currently supported by a Corrosion Control Strategy (CCS), Topsides Risk Based Inspection (RBI) scheme, Pipeline Corrosion Risk Assessment (CRA) and Pipeline Risk Assessment (PRA) tools. This paper describes the approach that was undertaken by the authors in developing and implementing an integrated corrosion management scheme (CMS) and how this approach is being extended to address the issues raised by the KP4 initiative to ensure the integrity of UK offshore assets beyond their design life.