By Renato Bastos and Ramon Rojas, Strohm
In 2017, Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency (ANP) issued a failure-mode alert after detecting stress corrosion cracking in the tensile armor wires of flexible subsea pipes operating in high-pressure, CO2-rich environments in the region’s presalt basins. This phenomenon can cause the unexpected and catastrophic failure of a flexible pipeline, leading to production losses and environmental damage.
To mitigate this issue, the major operators in the country pursued a definitive solution and identified Strohm’s thermoplastic composite pipe (TCP) as a viable alternative to steel and conventional flexible pipes, as the material is inert to stress corrosion cracking from CO2/H2S exposure due to its fully thermoplastic structure.
To accelerate adoption in Brazil, TCP manufacturer Strohm agreed to a staircase qualification approach for its technology. Under this plan, successive TCP products are qualified step by step, each time extending the operating conditions such as water depth, pressure and temperature to match post‑salt and, ultimately, presalt requirements.
Step 1: Shell invests in development campaign, testing program
Shell Brasil supported this approach and, as a result, the two companies partnered to proceed with the first step and execute a rigorous program aimed at applications typical of the region’s post-salt deepwater fields. Using R&D investment funds under ANP regulations, Shell invested in a comprehensive development campaign that included the in-country execution of almost 40 tests on a 6‑inch glass fiber (EGF‑PE) pipe, used for water injection. The results of this extensive testing program proved Strohm’s capabilities to accurately predict the pipelines’ behavior.
Following this program, DNV issued a Statement of Qualified Technology for the company’s 6-inch glass fiber EGF-PE pipe, as per the DNV-ST-F119 standard, for its use as a flowline or jumper in deep waters.
Step 2: Partners Petrobras and Shell qualify, test TCP
