Materials and Corrosion
Key to the successful delivery of a subsea project is in-depth knowledge and experience of materials selection, procurement, corrosion, coatings and cathodic protection and fabrication. Xodus Subsea has the necessary skills and experience in these areas where significant value can be added through the entire project delivery chain.
For example, during conceptual engineering, high level materials selection is required to define the necessary materials for the subsea infrastructure to identify any components that are long lead (such as corrosion resistant alloys) or that may require some qualification testing. These desktop studies have been performed for clients including:
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Total – selection of appropriate corrosion resistant alloys for the replacement Dunbar to Alwyn pipe in pipe system |
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Talisman Energy – definition of a corrosion testing programme for superduplex materials for the Lowlander development |
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MMC AMEC – selection of downhole, topsides and subsea pipeline materials for an Iranian gas field. |
All of these fields have particular challenges–severe barium sulphate scaling in the case of the Dunbar to Alwyn pipeline coupled with the need to meet a tight procurement schedule, and high H2S levels in the Lowlander and Iranian developments. These conditions required an in-depth understanding of the performance of materials in production environments and their resistance to various corrosion and cracking threats.
We provide materials expertise through the design phase, with the selection of coatings, design of cathodic protection systems and provision of procurement specifications to meet the client’s requirements. In addition, we support clients through their procurement and fabrication phases and add value from our knowledge of:
› Fabrication site safety
› Welding and welder procedure qualification
› Casting, forging and linepipe manufacturing
› Materials testing
› Quality control
› Non-destructive testing of plate, pipe and welds
› Qualification of automatic ultrasonic testing systems for pipeline girth welds.
Xodus Subsea consultancy support to clients in all aspects of materials and metallurgy has included:
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PT Saipem Indonesia – critical analysis of a subsea pipeline cathodic protection design |
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Nexen - review of the corrosion and effects of the asset lifetime of the Scott water injection linepipe and flexibles in terms of their risk from bacterial corrosion and oxidation |
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Confidential Client – review of subsea hub failure analysis and its impact on existing facilities. |
For more information contact:
Richard Heard, Director – Subsea Division
Tel: +44 (0)1224 628315 Email:
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