In a collaborative effort designed to improve vital protection of offshore assets, the Oil & Gas Technology Centre (OGTC) is successfully conducting trials of an advanced anti-corrosion coating on two North Sea offshore platforms. The mission of the OGTC, which is jointly funded by the government, is to establish a culture of innovation and position as a global hub for oil and gas technology, and innovation.
The challenge, however, is that the North Sea is one of the most brutal climates in the world. Often ice cold and windswept, the rigs in the North Sea face a constant corrosive onslaught of waves and salt spray. Traditional coatings simply cannot withstand the environment. The cost of maintenance on a rig can be up to 100 times as expensive as land-based maintenance because crews and supplies often have to be helicoptered out to the site, so when coatings fail it costs the asset owner enormous amounts of money.