Latest News, London Branch
As with other Institute of Corrosion meetings, the branch’s March and April technical presentations had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. The committee held an online meeting under its new chairman, Ben Moorhouse of BP, to discuss how to move forward under the current situation. The committee would like to thank Paul Brooks the outgoing chair for the hard work he put into the branch during his tenure. Contingency plans were discussed to hold a replacement Annual General Meeting and next season’s regular talks (October onwards) via online video conferencing, if they cannot be held in person. Further information will be available in later issues of this magazine, and on the Institute website.
Latest News, London Branch
The February talk was given by George Winning, Technical Service Manager for Clariant Oil Services in Africa, a Fellow member of ICorr and London branch committee member. George explained in his presentation why the corrosion inhibitor injection systems are required, and reviewed typical systems and corrosion control options, both mechanical and chemical. This was an excellent talk which produced significant discussion amongst those attending.
Within oil and gas operations there is a need to maintain and optimise production through life. One of the most common options to achieve this is the use of water injection to maintain reservoir pressure. With the use of these systems comes issues regarding corrosion as the presence of oxygenated water, scale and microbial growth can lead to premature failure unless efficiently mitigated.
The above corrosion threats were outlined in the presentation, followed by discussion on how the various systems used, amongst seawater, aquifer water, river water and other systems such as PWRI and water and gas (WAG), determine the most suitable mitigation methods.
This led onto the need for the fit-for-purpose design of the system, the maintenance of any mitigation measure and the required monitoring to ensure safe and efficient operation.
This brought up a discussion on many subjects covered. These included microbial monitoring of the system and identification of the most reliable methods, which opened up a philosophical debate on whether any method is truly reliable and led to a conclusion that a number of methods, Serial dilutions, ATP, qPCR or even H2S monitoring should be used in conjunction with trend mapping to ensure the system is running at its optimum level. Other questions revolved around reliability of systems, particularly the deoxygenation system, with the conclusions that effective maintenance and monitoring of the system to identify problems at an early stage are imperative to allow changes to the operation to be made and the system optimised. It was also highlighted that water injection systems are regularly overlooked, as they are not seen as the sales point in oil and gas production, and leaks are not of high environmental concern. This is a mistake as these systems are the most important measure taken to maintain oil production in the secondary oil recovery phase of a project and overlooking these in the short term will affect the economics of the asset in the long term.
The talk was well received being described as ‘Master Class’ and well delivered with clear and relevant arguments made. It was closed with a vote of thanks and a presentation to the speaker.
Latest News, London Branch
London Branch
The 2019 branch luncheon proved to be another great success, as the audience was bowled over by an enthralling guest appearance from legendary cricket commentator Henry Blofeld OBE. The unmistakable voice of the Test Match Special, regaled the crowd at the Royal Overseas League in Mayfair with stories from his 45-year career behind the mic, and his two books, which he happily signed for guests after the lunch.
Before the 170 guests settled in the Hall of India and Pakistan for the afternoon, the branch team of diligent raffle sellers had time to mingle and raise an approximate £1,650, which will help fund the future branch series of evening lectures. The contribution from Henry was greatly appreciated, as was the involvement of the event’s sponsors, which this year included Winn and Coles, DuraPol, Corrosion Integrity Management, Correx, and CTS.
The annual event also gave guests the opportunity to reflect on those that the industry lost this year, and in particular the passing of Bill Cox. Tributes to him were led by Institute President Gareth Hinds, who gave a superb account of the excellent work that Bill had done for the Institute during many years of service, which culminated in a rousing applause that Bill would have undoubtedly appreciated.
Preparation has already begun for the 2020 Luncheon, as well as a possible summer ball in London 2021, which will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the of the change of name of the Institute from the British Association of Corrosion Engineers (BACE) in 1966 to the Institute of Corrosion Science & Technology , which was the forerunner of the current Institute of Corrosion.
The first meeting of the branch on Wednesday 8th January had 40 attendees and started with an introduction to the new branding concepts for the Institute, which will be launched in February this year, given by Marc Desmeules, who gave a fascinating insight into the process behind designing a new logo which was the start of the rebranding exercise.
The main technical meeting followed which was a panel discussion on the complexities of internal linings, the selection variables and the link to design standards. The first presentation was from Dr Nasa Miskin from DuraPol who gave a presentation on “Corrosion Prevention in Acid Gas Treating Units”, an extremely difficult and complex environment for any lining system. This was followed by a presentation from Simon Daly of Hempel on “Internal Linings; Selection Variables and Link to Design Standards” which culminated in a discussion on the requirements for the new ISO standard for the internal lining of process vessels.
Both presentations are available to view on the Institute of Corrosion website. It was a successful evening and fantastic to see both the young engineers and branch members in discussion over refreshments afterwards.
The March meeting will be the branch AGM, followed by the chairman’s talk. Please note the date, Tuesday 10th March.
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The Institute of Corrosion continues to follow the official UK government guidelines on how to mitigate the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).
Our major priority is the safety and welfare of our members, officers and staff. With that in mind and in line with government guidance, all Institute meetings and events are cancelled until further notice, with the exception of those that can be held online.
Our main office at Corrosion House is open, with appropriate social distancing and safety measures in place for our staff. Members are asked to bear in mind that only essential visitors (e.g. maintenance, support) are permitted and no physical meetings can be hosted until further notice.
Our training course providers will provide regular updates via their websites.
We appreciate the patience and support of our members in these challenging circumstances.
London Branch
“Do you believe in RBI for CUI?
Dr Clare Watt (KAEFER Isoliertechnik) gives an informal presentation of her technical Eurocorr 2019 paper, “Using industry data to compare performance of different risk-based methods for the management of corrosion under insulation”
In conjunction to a Q&A session”
