Corrosion of submarine pipelines in the North Sea is the most common threat resulting in loss of containment (burst or pinhole leak). Industry experience shows that such failures are often due to a lack of sound corrosion monitoring systems. Such systems should be part of a total integrity management system consisting of a continuous integrity improvement process (threat identification, inspection planning, assessment and mitigation) with supporting management processes.
Barriers are suggested to be any kind of measure put in place to prevent a hazardous event (preventive barriers) and any measure that breaks the chain of events to prevent or minimize consequence escalation should the hazardous event take place (reactive barriers). Such measures can be physical/technical and/or non-physical (human/operational/organisational). Barriers can be illustrated in a so-called bow-tie diagram.
By applying the barrier concept in the integrity management context, key performance indicators (KPI) can be defined to help improve management and control of the threats with regard to corrosion.
