Oil and Gas Processing

The industry process for getting oil and gas out of the ground is fraught with many problems. Once the material is obtained from the ground there are the issues of transporting it to a processing plant. Within the processing plant the materials utilized have to be able to withstand the rigours of the processing itself. It can be a dangerous business. Hence the use of many special materials. Weldable super-martensitic stainless steels have a high useage in the industry. 6MO is a favourite in the North Sea particularly in Norwegian fields. It has excellent resistance to crevice attack in sea water. The 4 1/2% Mo and duplex stainless steels are more resistant than type 316, but suffer varying degrees of crevice attack in brackish water and seawater. C276, 625, Titanium, alloy 400, 17-4PH, 718 etc are also used in a wide range of areas. Tube, fittings and pipe are all produced in these materials.

Although super-martensitic alloys have so far mainly been used for flowlines they offer a wide range of potential applications such as process and piping components and also rigid risers.

Aluminium Bronze is excellent with sea water and has uses in transporting drinking water around a rig, or to hold sea water in the deluge systems as part of the fire defence systems.