October 2018, Vol. 245, No. 10

Corrosion Control

Controlling Corrosion: Don’t Conflate Cause and Effect

By Roland Anderson, Executive Vice President, Cosasco As long as there has been an oil industry, there have been corrosion and erosion. Upstream, midstream and downstream operators have constantly sought better ways to protect their assets and safeguard both health and safety and the bottom line. Once upon a time, there were coupons to act as a proxy for metal loss. Then there were in-line sensors capable of monitoring corrosivity. Now there are non-intrusive, ultrasonic sensors capable of directly monitoring pipe wall thickness. The trend is for more sensors, more data and more monitoring at the expense of inspection. It’s progress, but it would be a mistake to read this as a story of ea