Field Joint Coatings Workshop at Petro.t.ex Africa 2011

On 9 June, the Corrosion Institute of Southern Africa (CISA) will be hosting a one-day technical workshop covering Field Joint Coatings at the Petro.t.ex Africa exhibition, which runs from 9 to 11 June 2011 at Gallagher Convention Centre, Midrand.

Steel pipelines are used to transport natural gas, crude oil, water, petrochemicals and petroleum products at high pressures over long distances. As more sophisticated ‘new generation’ coatings evolve, they pose new challenges for pipeline owners and consultants. The global steel pipeline coating market was estimated at over $7-billion last year.

“One could estimate that the field joint coatings market is about 5% of the overall pipeline coating market, on the basis that for every 20 metres of pipe, there is one field joint,” explains Neil Webb, a corrosion specialist and member of the CISA and the US-based National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE).  “One amp of corrosion current flowing through a defect of one square centimetre will perforate a ten millimetre wall pipe in nine hours,” adds Webb. He highlights a number of challenges facing the field joint coatings industry.

“Field joint coatings, applied on site in very adverse conditions, have to be simple to apply and should match the pipeline factory coating,” he says. “Often the field joint is a weak link in the pipeline corrosion protection system, not due to products, but due to lack of awareness, poor application and the human element.”

According to a study conducted by the University of the Witwatersrand in 2004, the direct cost of corrosion to the South African economy is estimated at R154-billion per year.

International Expert to Address Delegates
Kevin Garrity, an expert in the field of corrosion, will be the keynote speaker at the workshop. Garrity is the current Vice-President and President Elect of the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE). It’s the largest and most influential corrosion protection institute in the world, with over 25 000 members in more than 100 countries. Its head office is in Houston, Texas.

Garrity is also Vice President of Integrity Services for Mears Group, an international engineering and construction company encompassing pipeline related services. He has 36 years of experience in corrosion engineering and the application of cathode protection (CP) of buried pipelines and tanks, concrete structures, and marine structures. Garrity has been responsible for the project management of many pipeline integrity projects, including the 30 000km TransCanada pipeline and 1 287km Alyeska pipeline project.

The one-day workshop will focus on the pipeline industry with the theme ‘Field Joint Repair Coatings of Pipelines’. Topics will include an overview and challenges of line pipe coatings; offshore pipeline joint coatings; heat shrink sleeves; liquid coatings; cold applied tapes; hot applied tapes and composite systems.