In the context of Latincorr2018, an event held in late October in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a presentation on ARPEL Guidelines on "Management of Stress Corrosion Cracking in Oil Pipelines" was made. They will be released later this year by the Pipelines and Terminals Committee of ARPEL.

Pablo Cianciosi of YPF, member of the Stress Corrosion Cracking Project Team of ARPEL, was in charge of the presentation during which he emphasized that the main objective of the technical work is to document best practices and lessons learned from the operators in the region in the detection, prevention and mitigation of stress cracking phenomena, and serve as a basis for an action plan to manage stress cracking.

According to the professionals who drafted the document, these ARPEL guidelines may be established as a general reference for operating companies and hydrocarbon pipeline transportation maintenance companies in the region, as regards pipeline integrity management against the threat of stress corrosion cracking (SCC).

Hydrocarbon pipeline transportation systems may be extremely long and connect the value chain between extraction, export, refining, storage and distribution sites in each country.

Among the different threats affecting their integrity today, SCC has drawn special attention in the hydrocarbon pipeline transportation companies, as it is regarded as one of the most complex challenges to manage due to the difficulty implied in its detection, diagnosis and mitigation.

During three days, the XI Latin American Congress on Corrosion brought together experts, professionals, students and businessmen from the region in an excellent working climate.