One of the most troublesome competitors companies in the oil and gas sector have to content with isn’t a rival company — it’s corrosion. Left to its own devices, corrosion can eat away at crucial infrastructure such as pipelines and vessels. This can lead to cracks, leaks and other compromising situations that can impact worker safety, operational efficiency and overhead costs. Without a comprehensive strategy for keeping up with this faceless competitor, operators within the oil and gas industry can find themselves on the losing side sooner than they know it.
This is why so many companies have adopted an online corrosion monitoring process to help them keep tabs on their assets. Remote corrosion detection is a critical strategy for preventing its worst effects, and anyone working within this sector needs to be aware of it.
What is Remote Corrosion Monitoring?
In the simplest terms, digital corrosion monitoring involves the use of technology to observe the condition of metal assets and track their degradation over time. Unlike manual methods, which require methodical visual inspections and data collection that was prone to human error, remote corrosion monitoring provides instant and accurate measurements of asset health that enables rapid decision-making.
With the help of remote corrosion monitoring systems, oil and gas enterprises can keep a close eye on their assets without necessarily devoting time and effort to observing them in the field. This gives them actionable information they can use to guide decisions about maintenance and repairs so they can be as efficient as possible and avoid unexpected equipment failures.
Key Components of a Remote Monitoring System
There are several elements that typically make up a corrosion monitoring system:
- Sensors: Various technologies are employed to detect the progress of corrosion in pipelines and vessels, including electrochemical probes and ultrasound sensors. These transmit data in real time to operators.
- Data Transmission: The sensors can send their information from remote sites to operators through a wide range of methods, including satellite connections and cellular networks.
- Power Supply: Because many of these systems operate in remote locations where connections to the electrical grid may not be available, they may use solar panels or thermoelectric generators to ensure they have a consistent source of power.
Common Techniques Used in Remote Corrosion Monitoring
Among the most common forms of remote corrosion monitoring are:
- Corrosion Coupons: This method involves using a sample of the pipeline material inside the process line, then removing it periodically to measure its weight loss.
- Electrical Resistance: Probes measure the changes in electrical resistance within the metal, which can be used to determine its rate and level of corrosion.
- Linear Polarization Resistance: In this technique, a small amount of voltage is applied to an electrode in the pipeline. Measuring the amount of current required for a particular shift in voltage helps pinpoint the level of corrosion on the electrode.
- Additional Techniques: Other methods used commonly for remote monitoring include guided wave testing and radiographic testing. These non-destructive testing processes can test large areas of infrastructure at once.
Competition in the oil and gas sector can be fierce, but corrosion is one competitor that can’t be bought out or put out of business. Having a solid plan for mitigating it that includes remote monitoring ensures companies can keep their operations as efficient, safe and cost-effective as they can be.
Looking into the future, corrosion monitoring is expected to integrate artificial intelligence and machine learning to help operators make better decisions. By automatically analyzing data collected by sensors, advanced algorithms can make predictions about asset conditions so owners can plan ahead and be better prepared. Whatever the future holds, one thing is certain — remote corrosion monitoring gives oil and gas companies a competitive edge over competitors of all types.