Corrosion and Materials

The Corrosion and Materials specialist team has responsibility for asset integrity management relating to external and internal corrosion threats to pressure systems which could result in a Major Accident Hazard or personal injury.  Our work covers the entire lifecycle of offshore installation from design, operation, inspection and maintenance, management of change, life extension and decommissioning. Topics we cover include:

  • materials selection,
  • design of pipework and plant,
  • coatings selection,
  • risk based inspection schemes, inspection reporting, audit and review;
  • corrosion threats assessment;
  • management of change to corrosion threat due to changing process fluids;
  • external corrosion (atmospheric, chloride stress corrosion cracking)
  • internal corrosion (sweet, sour, microbial, dead leg, under deposit)
  • galvanic and preferential weld corrosion
  • corrosion monitoring;
  • corrosion control by chemical injection;
  • cathodic protection

We have expertise in metallic and non-metallic materials, weld engineering and non-corrosion failure mechanisms such as fatigue, brittle failure, fretting and erosion.

Current Inspection Priorities

  • Corrosion under Insulation
  • Corrosion at trunnion supports
  • Dead leg corrosion
  • Bolting corrosion
  • Risk Based Inspection strategies
  • Non-destructive examination

Corrosion related safety bulletins

Guidance

We have been involved in the production of comprehensive corrosion management guidance issued by the Energy Institute[43] ('Guidance for corrosion management in oil and gas production and processing'), as well as several other topic specific guidance documents.

Materials and Corrosion research

HSE currently has research ongoing at its laboratory, including some shared research[44]* in the following areas:

  • Stress corrosion cracking
  • Bolting corrosion*
  • Performance of composite repair wraps*
  • Performance of advanced manufactured metallic components

Previous relevant corrosion research

Link URLs in this page

  1. Offshore oil and gashttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/index.htm
  2. How we workhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/how.htm
  3. Offshore health and safety lawhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/law.htm
  4. Workforce involvementhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/workinvolvement.htm
  5. Unconventional oil and gas exploration (shale gas)https://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/unconventional-gas.htm
  6. Overview - Offshore topicshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/topics.htm
  7. Accommodationhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/accommodation.htm
  8. Ageinghttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/ageing/index.htm
  9. Corrosion and materialshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/corrosion-and-materials.htm
  10. Offshore divinghttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/diving.htm
  11. Electrical and control systemshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/controlsystems.htm
  12. Evacuation, escape and rescue (EER)https://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/eer.htm
  13. Fire, explosion and risk assessmenthttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/assessment.htm
  14. Human factorshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/humanfactors.htm
  15. International liaisonhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/liaison.htm
  16. Marine and aviationhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/marineaviation.htm
  17. Maritime integrityhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/maritimeintegrity.htm
  18. Mechanical engineeringhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/mechengineering.htm
  19. Occupational healthhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/occupationalhealth.htm
  20. Offshore pipelineshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/pipelines.htm
  21. Process integrityhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/processintegrity.htm
  22. Researchhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/offshoreresearch.htm
  23. Safety caseshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/safetycases.htm
  24. Safety management systemshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/managementsystems.htm
  25. Structural integrityhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/structuralintegrity.htm
  26. Verificationhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/verification.htm
  27. Wellshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/wells.htm
  28. Working timehttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/workingtime.htm
  29. Overview - Resourceshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/resources.htm
  30. Overview - Publicationshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/publications.htm
  31. Operations noticeshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/notices/index.htm
  32. Safety alerts and noticeshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/notices/index.htm#safety-alerts
  33. Offshore information sheetshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/infosheets/index.htm
  34. Research reportshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/researchreports.htm
  35. Statisticshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/statistics/index.htm
  36. Offshore charging informationhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/charging.htm
  37. Key programme final reportshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/programmereports.htm
  38. Offshore Directivehttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/directive.htm
  39. Subscribehttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/ebulletin/index.htm
  40. Catastrophic failure of a pipework clamp connectorhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/catastrophic-failure-of-a-techlok-clamp.htm
  41. External chloride stress corrosion cracking of stainless steel lokring pipe connectorshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/lokring-pipe-connectors.html
  42. Corrosion in trunnion supports of pipework containing hazardous substanceshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/trunnion-supports-corrosion.htm
  43. Energy Institutehttps://www.energyinst.org/home
  44. shared researchhttps://www.hsl.gov.uk/hse-centre-for-shared-research
  45. Deluge systemshttps://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20241206190319/https://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/rr1046.htm
  46. Corrosion inhibitionhttps://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20241206190319/https://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/rr1023.htm
  47. Chloride SCChttps://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20241206190319/https://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/rr902.htm
  48. Plant ageing: Management of equipment containing hazardous fluids or pressurehttps://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20241206190319/https://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/rr509.htm
  49. Plant ageing studyhttps://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20241206190319/https://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/rr823.htm
  50. Guidance on management of ageing and thorough reviews of ageing installationshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/assets/docs/is4-2009.pdf
  51. Life Extension Issues for Ageing Offshore Installationshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/assets/docs/omae2008-57411.pdf
  52. A Framework for Monitoring the Management of Ageing Effects on Safety Critical Elements, Energy Institute, 2009 http://publishing.energyinst.org/publication/ei-technical-publications/installation-integrity/ei-research-report-a-framework-for-monitoring-the-management-of-ageing-effects-on-safety-critical-elements
Updated 2025-04-04