Corrosion under insulation (CUI)

REQUEST DESCRIPTION

The challenges with CUI were identified during a one-day innovation workshop November 15th, hosted by Statoil based on an initiative from Norsk Korrosjonsteknisk Forening (NKF). Based on these findings and Statoil’s CUI strategy, we now seek proposals for technologies that can meet one or more of the following needs:

Prevent or radically reduce CUI to happen, either on a complete system or for major parts of a system.
Detect/monitor and assess how the condition is under insulation on piping and process equipment
Radical improvements on how inspection and repairs are being performed

ABOUT THIS CONTEST

Participants must complete the proposal and submit by February 24th 2017. The proposals will be evaluated during March 2017, and participants may be contacted by the evaluation committee for clarifications. The best idea will be announced during April 2017 and will be rewarded a prize of NOK 100000 paid by Statoil and NKF.

Note: The innovation contest is only open for contributions from Norway (companies and individuals)

BACKGROUND

Process equipment and piping is critical for safe and efficient production of oil and gas. Equipment and piping is typically constructed of steel (stainless steel, carbon steel with a stainless steel layer to protect from the corrosive fluids or epoxy coated). Because of high pressure and explosive gases, it is important to always know the integrity. The operational temperatures are typically also higher than the ambient temperature, thus the need for insulation. It is a common practice to regularly inspect visually, both externally and internally. This means stopping the production, isolate and clean the equipment before inspection teams safely can do their tasks.

Operational units have expressed a need to improve the way Corrosion Under Insulation (CUI) is handled in Statoil. The high cost of maintenance of insulated equipment and the lack of non-destructive inspection methods were emphasized.

Preparations to make e.g. a pressure vessel ready for inspection takes a long time (e.g. it can be up to 2,000 man hours preparing followed by a few hours of inspection only). Production is typically halted for days or weeks. Moreover, these planned inspections often result in finding no structural damage at all. Non-insulated vessels can to some extent be inspected from the exterior by conventional inspection methods which have relatively little impact on production. Using the same approach on insulated vessels is possible but the insulation must be removed and this is again a time-consuming and cost-contributing step involving scaffolding and manual labor. CUI is a challenge for the technical integrity of the Statoil installations and generates high maintenance costs. Statoil’s actual CUI reducing measures can be divided in three focus areas:

Prevention of CUI
- New installations should have the focus on insulating only when needed
- It is believed that CUI can be prevented if robust and efficient solutions are adopted early enough during the design/engineering phase of the installations. This focus area concerns essentially green fields
Detection of CUI
- For brown fields where the insulation systems are old and not necessary optimal with regards to CUI prevention, it is important to be able to detect CUI degradations.
- Statoil’s current philosophy is to rely only on insulation strip-off and visual inspection of the metal underneath
Rectifications after CUI has occurred
- Repairs and changes to limit or prevent CUI in the future

Attributes of equipment and piping:

Material: Carbon or stainless steel
Wall thickness: From 10 to 100 mm
External insulation thickness: 50 to 100 mm
Mantel covering the insulation: 0.5-1mm stainless steel
Coatings are mostly epoxy resin based or coal tar epoxy for some of the older vessels

Timeline for THIS CONTEST

Opening contest: December 1st, 2016
Submission deadline: February 24th, 2017
Evaluation: March 2017
Announcement of winners: April 2017

KEY SUCCESS CRITERIA

Statoil invites proposals with the following properties:

Performance:

Technical solutions to obtain a better protection against corrosion under insulation (e.g. new insulation/coating systems/ repair systems) and reduce costs related to application, future inspection, etc.
Organisational solutions to reduce CUI risk
Solutions that can detect and locate damages under insulation without stripping off insulation and without/reduced need of scaffolding. By damages it is meant:
- Corrosion in the external surface of piping and equipment
- Defects in the coating like dents, damages, degradation or loss of coating that can lead to corrosion of underlying steel.
Preferably need only a minimum of external insulation removal when applied to the exterior.
Preferably detect mm size depth defects
Ideally can work during production and be compatible with surface temperatures between 50 and 100°C

Financials/business targets:

A solution is targeting in different ways to reduce the downtime related to prevention/inspection/repair of insulated piping and equipment. Given that the solution reduces the planned downtime with one day/year on a platform with a daily production of 100.000 barrels of oil, the value of the increased production is 4 million USD given an oil price of 40 USD/barrel. The increase in production and revenue would scale with the number of platforms involved.

Technology readiness:

Ideally able to do a pilot project before the end of 2018

POSSIBLE APPROACHES

Full or partial solutions are welcome from all industries and scientific areas. Proposals might include, but are not limited to:

Effective ways of partially removing insulation for easier use of sensing methods
Efficient ways of accessing equipment, e.g. with less scaffolding
Coating repair solutions which avoids CUI to occur
Insulation types which drain water rapidly
Cladding solutions which avoid water ingress
Cladding solutions which aim rapid drainage of water
Efficient coating which avoids CUI to occur
Data mining techniques that can help predict potential failure
Sensing technology that can monitor/image the steel surface of piping and equipment underneath insulation
Robotics or drone based solutions

Statoil is also interested in suggestions and ideas that might help in providing a solution. Solutions do not have to be complete and may require further development.

Confidentiality

Respondents confirm that their submissions do not contain any confidential information.

Selection / Review Process

Respondents acknowledge that Statoil reserves the sole and absolute right and discretion to select winner(s). The entry evaluation and award determination will be made by an internal Statoil team.

Submit proposal