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ICorr Aberdeen Updates
On Tuesday, 27th January 2026, the Aberdeen Branch held an in-person event at the Palm Court Hotel, with a presentation by Mike Westwood, technical sales engineer at Sand Monitoring Services (SMS).
This successful annual joint event with the Energy Institute (EI) focused on ‘Integrated Non-Intrusive Instrumentation for Real-Time Erosion/Corrosion Monitoring and Management.’This occasion marked Stephanie Okoye’s first event as chair of the ICorr Aberdeen Branch, and despite the ‘less-than-kind’ weather, we were pleased to see a strong and committed turnout. There were 40 registrants and 27 attendees on the night.
About the New ICorr
Chair Stephanie, the newly appointed ICorr Aberdeen Branch chair, is a Chartered Senior Corrosion Engineer with almost 20 years of extensive experience in the oil and gas industry. Her professional expertise encompasses corrosion and integrity management of North Sea oil and gas assets, as well as gas and chemical processing facilities, where she has consistently supported safe, reliable, and efficient operations.
She holds professional certification as a Senior Corrosion Technologist with AMPP (formerly NACE International) and has recently been elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Corrosion (FICorr), reflecting her significant contribution to the corrosion engineering profession and industry leadership.In addition to her technical expertise, Stephanie is a qualified project management professional with a strong track record of successfully leading multidisciplinary teams and delivering complex projects from concept through execution. Her leadership experience, technical depth, and commitment to professional excellence position her well to advance the objectives of the ICorr Aberdeen branch and support the continued development of its members and industry engagement initiatives.
Introduction form the Energy Institute
Dan Byrne from EI enthusiastically spoke about the new structure
and work of the Highlands and Islands Branch and their forthcoming programmes. He also stressed the need for institutes to work together to share their knowledge during a difficult period for the UK oil and gas sector. Further details of their activities may be found at:
https://www.energyinst.org/ei-near-me/uk/aberdeen
About the Presenter
Mike Westwood is Technical Sales Engineer at Sand Monitoring Services, with over 29 years’ experience in the upstream Oil & Gas industry, Mike’s current role at SMS includes specialising in real-time non-intrusive erosion / corrosion monitoring instrumentation solutions for asset integrity in challenging environments. With extensive experience supporting operators in corrosion management and erosion monitoring, he advocated for advanced, real-time data systems that enhance decision-making and reduce unplanned downtime. Mike’s insights on digital corrosion monitoring underscore his company’s transformational role in safety, efficiency, and lifecycle extension of critical infrastructure over the past four decades.
Synopsis
Across the upstream oil and gas sector, non-intrusive Acoustic Sand Monitoring (ASM) and Real Time Ultrasonic (RT-UT) wall-thickness instrumentation are enabling a step-change in how operators manage corrosion, erosion and overall asset integrity. ASM utilises clamp-on acoustic sensors to quantify sand impact on the pipe wall, defining maximum sand-free or acceptable sand rates so production can be safely optimised while limiting erosion damage at chokes, flowlines and topside equipment. Complementing this, RT-UT provides continuous wall-thickness data at critical locations, delivering early detection of metal loss driven by erosive solids and corrosive service conditions.
Deployed together, ASM and RT-UT provide permanent monitoring of both the “cause” (solids production) and the “effect” (resulting wall loss), enabling direct correlation between sand events and measured erosion rates, refinement of predictive models and more robust risk ranking of vulnerable systems. Integrated into a wider sand and erosion management strategy and connected to control systems, these technologies support alarm-driven and automated responses, allowing operators to control sand rates before damage occurs, adopt condition-based intervention planning, defer replacements and minimise loss-of-containment incidents. Their fully non-intrusive, retrofit-friendly design allows installation without process interruption, making them particularly attractive for brownfield assets at risk due to age-related degradation or facing increased solids production due to diminished downhole sand control. This was a fascinating presentation generating many questions from the joint ICorr/EI audience. Mike highlighted in-service risks and preferred automated solutions to avoid loss of containment and loss of production.
Future Events
Please contact: icorrabz@gmail.com if you wish to join the Aberdeen branch mailing list or contact: ABZchair@icorr.org
if you wish to join its committee or to make a technical presentation. All Aberdeen presentations are uploaded at:
https://www.icorr.org/aberdeen/ See local technical programme.