Rehabilitation coatings-current challenges and opportunities for the future

Abstract

Underground pipelines used for oil, gas and water distribution in Saudi Arabia and gulf region are estimated more than 33000 km in length with a range of diameters from 8 and 80 inch. Most of these pipelines are buried in different types of corrosive soil conditions and in most cases an external coating is employed along with cathodic protection (CP). Most of the existing pipelines are over 30 years old now and this is the stage to carry out rehabilitation projects for life extension of this aging infrastructure. The selection of the suitable coating systems for the rehabilitation projects is a very complicated process as it requires in depth understanding the coating/environments interactions in that particular environment along with application challenges. This paper discusses in detail the different types of external underground pipeline coating types and their selection criteria for rehabilitation projects along with recent trends and future recommendations.