JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #97 - Special JEC Americas - May/June 2015 - 45

oil & gas / overview

Composites in oil and gas:
growth in new and existing applications
Fibre-reinforced polymer matrix composites already have a significant usage in a wide variety of applications all along the oil
and gas industry supply chain starting with exploration, through
production, transportation and storage and also at the utilisation
stage, for example in high-pressure filament-wound compressed
natural gas tanks.

he applications cover onshore and
offshore use as well as new build,
replacement and repair. The composite raw materials used in these applications
cover the full range of fibres (glass, carbon
and aramid) and the resin systems used
include both thermoset and, more recently,
high performance thermoplastics.

Applications in oil & gas
exploration and production
Existing applications of composites can be
found in the exploration and production
platforms, especially those used offshore by
the oil and gas industry. This industry's supply chain is not particularly transparent with
regards to understanding the volumes of
composites used. This is because composite
parts are usually supplied as components
that are fitted into rigs which are built by
highly specialised rig builders. Examples
of such composite components are pipes,
tanks, ladders, railings, lifeboat systems,
and modular elements for the protection of
personnel in case of fire or to encase electrical equipment. Figure 1 shows a simplified
schematic of the industry supply chain
which shows where composites fit at the
start of the chain.
One of the most significant trends in the
oil and gas industry affecting the type of

rigs being built, at least until the recent oil
price decline started in the second half of
2014, was the move to ever deeper offshore
exploration; first to "deep-water" (>600m)
and then increasingly to "ultra-deep-water"
(>1,500m) sea depths.
The bulk of new significant oil and gas
field finds has been occurring in these
ultra-deep-water locations. At these depths,
with floating as opposed to fixed platforms,
lighter weight materials with good corrosion
resistance can be attractive to use. New composite applications could include equipment
such as tethers, risers and spoolable flexible

By
andrew maFeld
managing director
connectra group

gathering lines, some types of which are
based on carbon fibre-reinforced thermoplastic. With a typical rig weighing some
8,000 tons, industry estimates have put the
current penetration of composites up to
10% of that weight, with all the different
components added together. An additional
area where composites can be used is in
ROVs (remotely operated vehicles), which
are extensively used at greater depths and
where composite-based umbilicals can also
be used. It needs to be said that in spite of
years of testing components such as composite risers, the industry, which has always

Fig. 1: The oil and gas industry supply chain is complex

No97 May - June 2015 / jec

composites magazine 45

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #97 - Special JEC Americas - May/June 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #97 - Special JEC Americas - May/June 2015