Oil and gas production and processing covers all aspects of oil and gas collection. From site exploration to refining and processing. Anodes may not be involved in all steps of the process but certainly considerations are made to anaylze whether or not Cathodic Protection should be employed. Soil types, local environment as well as expected service life are some of the major factors when considering the Cathodic Protection requirements of the infrastructure whether it be upstream, midstream or downstream.
Typical upstream infrastructure to consider focuses on the extraction process. Exploration and drilling being such a temporary process generally does not raise any corrosion concerns. Extraction however is a often overlooked process that can greatly benefit from Cathodic Protection. Many well systems are in place long enough where corrosion can become a concern – especially when it comes to the local environment. Strategic placement of BADGERCONNECT Magnesium Anodes during initial construction can add relatively little cost for the chance to protect against future spills. More forward thinking companies with long term service plans for a well system, may consider an impressed current system utilizing any number of anode types including BADGERCOMP Graphite Anodes, BADGERCAST HSCI Anodes, or BADGERCOAT Mixed Metal Oxide Anodes. Water separating tanks used to increase the purity of the oil before transport also use BADGERCOAST Aluminum Anodes for what is commonly known as redhead and bluehead anodes.
Midstream is the heart of Cathodic Protection anode needs. Midstream describes the path the oil and gas takes from the wellhead to the refinery. This includes pipelines, transfer stations, pumping stations, above ground storage tanks and below ground storage tanks. This is the heart of Cathodic Protection and all anode types are employed for all situations. Reach out to us and you corrosion engineer to match your product with the anode of your preference. A new and formerly overlooked corrosion concern in midstream is corrosion occurring in shared-right-away with high voltage AC current powerlines. These powerlines often have negative and somewhat unpredictable localized corrosion sites that must be accounted for. See our white paper on shared-right-away, but also know that BADGERCORD Zinc Ribbon is the top solution for AC mitigation due to its galvanic and current distributing properties.
When crude oil is converted into usable products such as gasoline, fuel, diesel and the many other hydrocarbon products we use on a daily basis it is considered to be in the downstream phase of production. This phase is typically highlighted by complex piping networks and different processing equipment on site at a refinery. Key concerns here is stray current from the processes themselves as well as interference from multiple Cathodic Protection systems. Protecting this infrastructure takes a deep knowledge of how the systems have been built up as well as where existing corrosion prevention tools have been implemented.
