TOTAL SA is a French state-owned multinational oil and gas company and one of the six ‘super major’ oil companies in the world. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration to refining.
TOTAL currently have operations throughout the world and common with most oil and gas companies, corrosion and asset life extension issues are an increasingly costly and time consuming problem to manage.
TOTAL contacted Oxifree recognising the need to introduce new coating technology rather than continuing with traditional methods that are known to have limitations on complex structures.
Objective
Oxifree UK were invited to demonstrate the anti-corrosion properties of Oxifree TM198 coating with the purpose of TOTAL completing live mechanical trials for potential global acceptance, if successful.
Process
Oxifree UK mobilised to TOTAL global integrity division facilities at Pau, France, and following initial presentations to senior corrosion personnel, a live demonstration of Oxifree TM198 coating was performed at a nearby fabric maintenance partner. A test flange assembly was coated to allow ongoing trials to be performed over a prescribed six-month period.
Project
The Demonstration was carried out by an Oxifree trained applicator in the presence of TOTAL Senior Corrosion Lead and representatives of TOTAL Fabric Maintenance Partners.
Following the live demonstration, a test sample on a brand new flange assembly was requested by TOTAL in order to run a live trial in accordance with TOTAL asset integrity recommended practice for non-adhesive coatings. A section of the coating was removed for comparison purposes.
The test assembly was positioned in a dry, dusty environment and was ‘blasted’ twice a day with a strong saline solution then left to dry. It was then subject to strong natural UV exposure (south-west of France) during the day and left moist during the night. This test and sequence ran for four months. After the four-month period of saline and exposure tests, the flange was submerged within fresh seawater for two months with the water being changed weekly.
Outcome
The outcome of this customer specific test process was hugely successful with Oxifree TM198 coating performing strongly and exceeding a traditional paint based coating comparison. Given the success of the trial, TOTAL global integrity have sanctioned Oxifree coatings for use across their assets for the protection of metal components.
This has led to the award of an initial project to coat 3,000 flanges situated on an FPSO in the Gulf of Guinea with further projects planned.