Coatings Services
The services OSG can provide include:
- Selection of subsea pipeline insulation systems for mitigating hydrate, wax, emulsion or viscosity issues to improve flow assurance. These requirements would typically include requirements on minimum fluid temperatures during operation and a cool-down requirement, whereby temperatures in the system are maintained above a critical minimum for a designated period of time.
- Insulation products OSG would consider recommending, depending on operating conditions, are Glass Syntactic Polyurethane (GSPU), multi-layer (3 or 5) syntactic polypropylene (PP) and solid rubber. Syntactic polypropylene or polyurethane are polyolefins in which the polymeric matrix incorporates small hollow glass micro spheres, giving good thermal insulation properties and a high degree of hydrostatic pressure resistance.
- Pipe in Pipe assemblies which consists of an inner pipe and jacket pipe, to resist installation and hydrostatic loads with insulation material in the annulus. The insulation material can therefore be low strength, high thermal performance material such as low density foam or rock wool that can be bonded in the annulus to restrain any movement between pipes or non-bonded where there is unrestrained movement.
- Coating selection where LNG transportation at -196ºC, requires PIP systems with microporous materials and an inner pipe material with very low thermal expansion such as Invar 36 or ASTM A553 Type 1, 9% Nickel Steel or alternatively a 3 layer insulation system with polyisocyanurate (PIR).
- Coatings selections for pipelines, risers and subsea structures and topsides, e.g. coal tar, FBE, polyolefinics, 3 layers, PU, high temperature systems, insulation
- Coating testing (laboratory and field) disbondment, impact, high temperature, high pressure, collapse, sour service
- Selecting, specifying and checking cathodic protection monitoring systems and site surveys
- Field joint coating materials selection, design and application methodologies. The design of field joints for the selected parent coating and insulation system must be compatible and achieve similar mechanical and physical properties to the parent coating or insulation system.
- Internal flow coating selection. The benefits of a flow efficiency coating (FEC) are recognized by a decrease in the pipeline diameter in the design stage for the same flow capacity. A reduction in the pressure drop increases the flow rate and a subsequent reduction in power consumption. These factors can substantially reduce CAPEX and OPEX for gas transmission pipelines.
- Developing of a water tight (hydrophobic) field joint coating for offshore applications, to provide an extension to the fatigue life and less conservative weld defect acceptance criteria by allowing the use of fatigue crack growth rates for steel in air instead of the more severe rates for steel in seawater.