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Managing Stress Corrosion Cracking at Bekapai Mature Facility

Proceedings Title : Proc. Indon. Petrol. Assoc., 42nd Ann. Conv., 2018

Bekapai field is an offshore field discovered in 1972, lies 15 km from the mouth of the Mahakam River delta in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Despite of being a mature field with its limitation, Bekapai is still producing at 85 MMSCFD and 9500 BOPD. As a mature field, Bekapai is facing various integrity issues such as fire water and OWTU network degradation, small fitting cracks and welding defects, stress corrosion cracking at stainless steel equipments, etc. This paper is focusing on how to deal with stress corrosion cracking (SCC) at Bekapai site. Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) is the cracking induced from the combined influence of tensile stress and a corrosive environment. As Bekapai is an offshore platform installation, it is unavoidable that there is chlorine induction to stainless steel pipings and vessels in daily operation, especially from marine environment and fire water system (during real deluge test using sea water). Starting 2015, there is a rigorous inspection campaign at Bekapai stainless steel equipment (done in 6 monthly basis). Multiple SCC case were found at Bekapai compressor pipings, vessels, and its fuel gas package. In term of crack inspection, two methods are considered reliable, eddy current method and metallographic inspection. Eddy current is useful as early identification of the crack, while metallographic inspection is used to validate eddy current finding. In term of repair, two options is available, cut and replace and grinding method. Due to material unavailability for replacement, option to perform grinding at SCC pipes and vessels is considered. Grinding operation has been performed at Bekapai for both pipings and vessels, also offline & online equipments. This grinding operation, with proper preparation and risk assessment is considered safe, time efficient, and cost beneficial. Painting is applied after repair to avoid further chlorine induction to the stainless steel equipments. By robust inspection strategy and reliable repair strategy on dealing with SCC, Bekapai stainless steel equipment can be maintained over its life time.

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