The service life of flexible lines installed today in Pre-Salt fields is being significantly reduced by a phenomenon called Stress Corrosion Cracking by CO2 (SCC-CO2) that was not foreseen during the qualification process. The presence of water in the annular region, caused mainly by damages in the external layers or in the connector seals, together with the presence of CO2 permeated from the injected or produced fluids creates an extremely corrosive environment for the structural layers, leading to the initiation of SCC-CO2 process and ultimately, rupture of the affected flexible lines.
Considering that SCC-CO2 is currently one of the biggest risks in fields where flexibles are used, GALP/Petrogal Brasil is supporting several R&D initiatives focused on the understanding and mitigation of the phenomena, including the development of an annulus flooding inspection tool.
Within this project, crossing the flexible lines frontier, a versatile and innovative concept was developed aiming to maintain a standard design and methodology for the end fittings used to prepare for tests the 9 flexible pipe structures from the 3 main suppliers (TechnipFMC, NOV and Bh). On April 27th, the last 2 flexible line samples out of the 9 to be used in this project were delivered by NOV at Simeros facilities to be prepared for the hyperbaric tests. Considering the significant differences and technical requirements among the existing flexible pipes, this development represented a great challenge and learning opportunity, where GALP/Petrogal Brasil played an important role.
