NACE MR0175/ISO 15156: Update on Current Document and Where are We Going?

Abstract

NACE MR0175/ISO 15156 has now been out in its entirety since December 2003. What have we, the global materials and corrosion community that uses this standard, learned from the use of it over the last almost 15 years? What have been some of the biggest problems that we have had to face? What are our biggest achievements? What are the recent changes to the standard and what remains to be done? These questions are answered in this paper.

This standard is now undergoing a critical review to determine how it should change to meet the future needs of the Oil & Gas Industry better. Where are we headed with NACE MR0175/ISO 15156? The results of our collective initial efforts are presented.

INTRODUCTION

The global materials and corrosion community is now 20 years into the process of an NACE/ISO Standard on Materials for use in H2S containing environments in oil and gas production. The standard describes requirements and recommendations for the selection and qualification of metallic materials for service in equipment used in oil and gas production in H2S containing environments. The ISO 15156 standard was published in parts where Part 1 – General principles for selection of cracking-resistant materials was initially published in 2001 with Part 2 – Cracking-resistant carbon and low-alloy steels and the use of cast irons and Part 3 – Cracking-resistant CRAs (corrosion resistant alloys) and other alloys were initially published in March and December respectively in 2003.1,2,3,

The origins of the combined NACE MR0175/ISO 15156 lie mostly in NACE MR0175 (2002 revision cited here) but with heavy influence from the work of the European Federation of Corrosion that culminated in EFC Publication 16 Guidelines on materials requirements for carbon and low alloy steels for H2S-containing environments in oil and gas production and Publication 17 Corrosion Resistant Alloys for Oil and Gas Production: Guidelines on General Requirements and Test Methods for H2S Service 4,5,6 A proposal to create a joint ISO/NACE standard originated in 1995 with an initial work group meeting that occurred during Corrosion 1996. The Task Group project leaders were Derek Milliams and Bob Tuttle. In conjunction with this effort, we (NACE) worked on a transition MR0175 standard that would act as a bridge to the n new ISO format standard. This was the 2003 revision of MR0175.7 The author served as Chairman of NACE’s STG 32 and Chairman of NACE’s TG 299 during this transition period from NACE MR0175 to the NACE MR0175/ISO 15156; he is the current outgoing Chairman of the NACE MR0175/ISO 15156 Maintenance Panel.