Paper No.

732

ANODE CONSUMPTION ON A SUBSEA X-MAS TREE

Rolf E. Lye
Norsk Hydro Research Centre
P.O. BOX 2560
N-3901 Porsgrunn, Norway

ABSTRACT

Anode consumption and coating breakdown on a X-mas tree installed at the Troll Field
in the Norwegian North Sea was investigated after 5 years. A comparison with a spare
tree and one tree being exposed for only 3-4 months was done. The epoxy coating has
several blisters, in particular on stainless steel surfaces. Water inside the blisters has a
pH of 13-14 indicating that the cathodic reaction occurs inside them. The anode
dimensions indicate an overall anode consumption of approximately 20%, while the
design allows 27% after 5 years. This indicates that the original design is quite
conservative. If the design had been done according to present day design rules, the
conservatism would be reduced; an overall anode consumption of Zq?io is then likely
(still less than allowed 27%).

INTRODUCTION

“TOGI” is an acronym for Troll-Oseberg-Gas-Injection and consists of a template

located at 305 m depth on the Troll field in the Norwegian North Sea with five X-mas
trees installed. The template produces gas which is transported by a subsea pipeline to
the nearby Oseberg field for injection.

The subsea trees were installed in the summer of 1991. One tree was pulled after only a
couple of months production. An unexpected high consumption of the aluminium
sacrificial anodes was reported. The tree was therefore inspected with respect to

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corrosion protection on 31 October 1991. In the summer of 1996 another tree was pulled
(due to a leak in a hydraulic coupling). This time an unexpected low anode consumption
was reported. At the time of pulling the second tree the cathodic protection design
requirements for subsea installations were about to be revised. An opportunity to
compare with “field data” was thus at hand. On 18 July 1996 the tree was inspected. A
spare tree, which had not been installed subsea, was available at the inspection location
and was used as reference.

Table 1 identifies the trees.

Table 1 X-mas tree identification

Tree no. IPulled at IExposure time I

1 Never used Only in-shore test
5 Fall 1991 3-4 months
7 Week 251996 5 vears

The scope of the investigation was to find whether the anode consumption deviated in
any significant way from design premises, and decide whether changes to the design
criteria for new subsea installations should be implemented. This includes design
currents and coating breakdown.

CATHODIC PROTECTION DESIGN

The TOGI cathodic protection was designed in accordance with the DNV document RP
B401 “Cathodic Protection Design”, 1986 revision. That document was revised in 1993,
and later the subsea c.p. design has been done in accordance with Norsok standard M-
CR-503. A comparison between these standards is given in Table 2.

Table 2 Comparison between design standards and actual design for TOGI

Parametre RP B401 1986 RP B401 1993 NORSOK TOGI

Current Initial 180 180 180 180
density, Mean 105 80 90 105
mA/m2 Final 120 110 120 120
Coating Initial 2 2 2 5
breakdown, % Mean 13,4 12,8 9 17
(18 years) Final 26 23,6 18 36
Current to 5 5 8 5
wells, A/year

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The design life for TOGI is 18 years, and the same currents and coating breakdown
numbers are used for all surfaces, regardless of material (stainless steels and structural
steel).

Additional current to hot surfaces (temperature above 25”C) has been included. The
current to the wells was not included in the X-mas tree design (these anodes are located
on the base and casing hanger structure).

The TOGI trees were coated by a two component epoxy paint without zinc which was
applied in two layers. The same coating was used on all materials.

The exceptionally high coating breakdown numbers for TOGI are justified in the design
documents by “expected high wear during set out and retrieval operations”.

The materials used are mainly:

F6NM for the tree body and large forgings (13% Cr, 4% Ni stainless steel)
UNS S3 1803 (22!Z0Cr duplex stainless steel) for flowline hubs and connectors
UNS S3 1603 (AISI316L) for control tubing small bore)
CMn-steel for structural items and valve actuator casings.

INSPECTION RESULTS

Coating

The coating on Tree Number 7 was in general in good condition. On stainless surfaces
the coating is in some areas completely absent. This, however, is also the case on Tree
No. 1 which was never used and on Tree No. 5 which was pulled after only 3 months.
This is probably due to inadequate bonding on stainless surfaces which were not
gritblasted. The high temperatures on the duplex hubs may also be one reason for the
coating damage. However, the X-mas tree body made of F6NM has the same surface
temperature, and here the coating is good. Inadequate surface preparation seems to be the
explanation, particularly since the coating on small bore 316 stainless tubing partly is
completely gone. One consequence of this finding is that we now do not specify coating
on stainless tubing. On all other metallic components, regardless of material, coating is
required.

Otherwise physically damaged coating was mainly found on edges and on surfaces
subject to mechanical wear through handling. Such damage was in most instances
limited to the top coating layer, so there still was coating left on the surfaces.

According to design the coating breakdown could have been approximately 7% after 5
years. It was actually less than 570. Coating breakdown does, however, not only mean
physically damaged coating. From a cathodic protection point of view, any coated

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surface drawing current counts as “coating breakdown”. Blisters were found on almost
all coated surfaces, but mostly on the large (and hot) duplex stainless steel surfaces.
Locally they cover much more than 7% of the surface. Some of these blisters contained
water, which was withdrawn with a syringe and the pH measured at about 13-14. This
hints at cathodic disbanding, and that the cathodic reaction actually occurs inside these
blisters. How much current they draw is impossible to judge from the size of the blister
and the pH.

Anodes

Anode inspection on Tree Number 7 and comparison with Tree No. 1 is reported by
anode dimensions. Such dimensional analysis only makes sense in respect to design if
the anodes are optimised both with respect to weight and current supply. For TOGI this
is not the case. The design shows that necessary weight for the X-mas tree assembly is
254 kg, while installed anode weigth was 266 kg. For the X-mas tree guide base
structure, the weight requirement is 101 kg, while installed weight was 135kg. This extra
weight means that the anode consumption with regard to volume will not follow the
coating breakdown design curve exactly, since more anode mass and current capacity is
available at the end of the design life than required. This comparison can therefore only
judge whether the design is overly conservative or the opposite.

Three anodes were singled out for close inspection. All were flush mounted with a
trapezoidal cross section. One had a common offshore stand-off design and was
mounted on the base plate. The other two are long slender anodes mounted on the corner
posts of the X-mas tree assembly. One each of these two anodes points inwards and
outwards from the tree block.

After retrieval of the tree it was cleaned by high pressure fresh water jetting. The anodes
had still a hard adherent oxide layer which had to be scraped off with a knife before
dimensional measurements could be done.

Tables 3 and 4 show dimension comparisons for the anodes. Note that no dimension
measurements were done on the tree which was pulled after c1
- UUU~lG
‘-..-’- U1
‘4 lllU1l
‘--’h-L1l>. ‘ha-a
1 llGIG

was nothing unusual about these anodes, but the personel saw they were starting to
corrode and thought they should report it.

Table 3 Anode dimensions, nominal from fabrication drawing, measurements from

unused (Tree No. 1) and 5 years consumed (Tree No. 7), mm

Nominal dimensions “New’’anode, Tree No. 1 Consumed anode, Tree No. 7

Bottom 184x440 182 X 432 175 X429
Top 150x396 152 X 395 142 X 385
Height 167 167 155

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Table 4 Anode dimensions, nominal from fabrication drawing, measurements from
unused (Tree No. 1) and 5 years consumed (Tree No. 7), mm.

Nominal dimensions “New” anode, Tree 7, facing Tree 7, facing

Tree No. 1 inwards outwards
Bottom 90X400 85 X 399 74x 380 71x387
Top 74x380 74X 383 54x 365 58X 376
Height 52 50 43 52 (surface oxide)

The bottom surfaces have hardly changed the dimensions. This is due to the 150~ coal
tar epoxy coating applied on the anode surface facing the steel. The corrosion on the
other surfaces is quite uneven with hills and valleys. The dimensions are uced to
calculate the volume and weight (supplier-given anode density: 2.78 kg/dm3).

Volume and weight changes for these three anodes are shown in Table 5. Nominal new
weights are 30.3 and 4.5 kg.

Table 5 Volume and calculated weight changes, and degree of consumption

Anode Volume change, cm3 Weight change, kg Degree consumption, YO

Normal 1653 4.6 15.2/16.9
Slender, in 522 1.45 32136
Slender, out 399 1.11 25/27

Two consumption degrees are given. One is based on direct calculation, the other takes
into account that the anode is assumed to have a utilisation of only 90~0 of the net
weight.

Assuming a linear coating breakdown, the theoretical anode consumption should have
been 28% after 5 years. At least the smallest anodes seem to have a larger consumption
rate. However, these small anodes only amount to about 20% of the total anode mass.
Based on the overall design, an average anode consumption of 207. has been calculated.
This implies a quite conservative design.

The difference in degree of consumption for the different anodes should not be
surprising. The anodes are subjected to different geometries, and have different anode
resistances. The small anodes have the largest anode resistance, such that the largest
anode should be consumed first. The opposite seems to be the case, which may show a
less than optimum anode distribution on the structures.

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 WHAT IF?

If TOGI had been designed with the Norsok design data given in Table 1 presently used
for subsea installations in the Norwegian North Sea, then what would be the result?

The overall anode weight would then have been reduced by approximately 14%. The
measured weight reduction on the anodes then would correspond to a degree of
consumption of 23%. This is closer to expected values (28Yo), but still on the
conservative side. A better optimisation between weight and current output (dimensions)
would have given an even better correspondence between actual consumption and
theoretical.

CONCLUSION

Coating

The coating on the investigated Tree No. 7 has little physical damage. The bare steel area
is considerably less than the 7~0 allowed by design after 5 years. On the other hand there
was much blistering which, due to the high pH of the water, is believed to be cathodic
disbanding. The current consumption of these blisters is unknown, but based on anode
dimension measurements, it does not seem to be outside design premises.

The coating breakdown was larger on stainless steel surfaces which had not been grit
blasted than on surfaces with a normal surface preparation before painting. It is
recommended to leave small bore stainless tubing uncoated and include sufficient anode
capacity, rather than paint and believe the coating will last throughout the lifetime.

Anode consumption

Two sizes of anodes have been investigated. The degree of consumption was about 17~0
for one type and 3070 for the other. Overall consumption has been calculated to about
20%. The design allowed an anode consumption of 27% after 5 years, which implies that
the TOGI structures and trees are conservatively designed. If the design criteria had been
based on present day standards used in the Norwegian North Sea, the degree of
consumption would be very close to design.

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