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Building up an engineeringlibrary to solve those niggling challenges

Steve Jones is passionate about his work and his enthusiasm is catching. Start talking to himabout engineering projects and the minutes fly past and the knowledge flows forth. Withover twenty-four years of experience behind him, it is not surprising that he can venture forthon any number of subjects as Stainless steel World was to find out recently when we caughtup with him on a rare day off at his home in Surrey.

By John Butterfield

Earlier yearsSteve Jones started out on his career as a

metallurgical laboratory technician at an

aluminium extrusion plant – a job he

undertook in conjunction with further and

higher education. After graduation, he

moved to an electronic valve producer as

a materials engineer. Realising that he

needed more in depth study, he embarked

upon a Ph.D. in materials where, as a

sideline, he was exposed to the corrosion

issues associated with offshore oil & gas

production. This prompted him to take up

a position with a government entity

serving the then Offshore Safety Division

and the Offshore Supplies Office of the

UK Department of Energy. “It was a very

varied and interesting role enabling me to

deal with such things as welding of duplex

stainless pipelines, oceanography,

development of swivel turrets, ROVs and

all things in between,“ he tells us. 

“Rewards, however, were insufficiently

lucrative, eventually forcing a move to a

pipeline engineering contractor and a real

baptism of fire,” he recalls, for he had to

jump straight into the engineering,

A BP drilling platform.

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he constantly looks for solutions to solve

the challenges he comes across in his

everyday work. This has inspired a

considerable ‘hobby’ since on average he

saves around twenty work-related

technical papers or standards to his

personal electronic library every week.

“Naturally, I can’t study each one in depth,

but there is always a situation when they

come in handy. Generally, I’ve amassed

the documents to research some technical

issue or question that has arisen. As a

word of advice to all colleagues starting

out in this line of business I would strongly

recommend that when you come across

standards and any articles in the literature

to save them and know how to retrieve

them. You simply can’t carry all that you

need in your head. As Albert Einstein said,

‘I do not carry such information in

my mind since it is readily available in

books,’ or, for the more impressionable,

‘the secret to creativity is knowing how to

hide your sources.’ ”

Most of the challenges that Steve faces

at BP are those related either to: “(a)

trying to explain the risk implications

of materials and corrosion degradation

mechanisms to non-experts with

sometimes different agendas; and/or (b)

trying to play catch up with corrosion and

materials assessments when the

necessary information inputs from other

engineering disciplines come later in the

project schedule.” It’s a continual

juggling of balls or a game of chess to

ensure that all the pieces fit together to

give the best possible solution –

whichever way you wish to look at it”.

Changes over a ¼ centuryHaving worked almost a quarter of a

century in the industry, he has obviously

seen a large number of changes. The

biggest has been the move towards risk

assessment of corrosion and materials

degradation threats and the assessment

of inspectability in the materials selection

process. “Risk-based inspection (RBI)

activities are now beginning to appear

much earlier in projects. It’s no longer

acceptable for projects to force

unpiggable carbon steel pipelines on

operations simply because it was cheaper

CAPEX,” he tells us. “Moreover, perhaps

the biggest surprise for engineers has

been our failure as a group to apply what

we already know correctly. For example,

some people see new technology as the

panacea whilst to me it would simply be to

follow existing standards and procedures

correctly. Oil company share prices might

Steve Jones

to shore off the Mediterranean Coast of

Egypt. Talking to him it is immediately

apparent that he takes his responsibilities

very seriously – seeing them not only in

the perspective of what he does for BP

ands its ethnic rules but also in the wider

implications of his work as a professional

member of the Institute of Materials,

Minerals and Mining and its code of

conduct.

A personal library at handWhen describing what he likes most about

his job, Steve is keen to point out that this

is closely tied up with its variability, with

two consecutive days rarely being the

same. The continuing learning process

similarly proves to be enjoyable for him as

procurement and installation of a 325 km,

30-inch North Sea gas pipeline. From then

on though he was hooked, and twenty-

three years later he’s still doing more or

less the same thing, only in his own words

“the water is deeper and the gas is more

corrosive,” but he’s still enjoying it!

The present with BPSteve’s current position is that of a Lead

Materials and Corrosion Engineer at BP

Exploration Operating Co. Ltd. where he is

charged on a technical level with

delivering the materials and corrosion

elements of a safe design and quality build

for the West Nile Delta Project within BP’s

operating management system (OMS).

The project is a dual field subsea tieback

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be a lot higher if we all stuck to these

simple case rules,” he relates.

For the last twelve years Steve has

worked almost solely on large, multi-billion

dollar, greenfield projects in various stages

from design right through to construction

and commissioning. When talking about

lifecycle costs he has some mixed

reservations relating that in his experience

projects do not give enough attention to

this issue, in some cases only paying lip

service. “Lowest CAPEX has generally

been king, but that is all beginning to

change, he says.”

Workhorse metalsOn subsea projects that he works on he

says that the real workhorse CRA is 625

(UNS N06625) “simply because of its

reliability in fabrication and operation. It’s

also reasonably straightforward to weld,

resists most production environments and

can handle seawater incursions if

necessary”. Having said this, it seems that

within his group he and colleagues also

have to juggle the selection of 825 (UNS

N08825) or 316L (UNS S31603), clad or

lined, line pipes in a cost reduction

drive accounting for the increased

corrosion risk from lower alloys.

Solving problems easy or hardDoes he ever come across true surprises

in his work with specified materials

performing better, worse, or very differently

than he has expected? “Never” he says

without much further thought. Apparently,

it is the materials that have sometimes

been foisted on him to use that have given

problems. “A prime example that comes to

mind is that of a compressor supplier that

used a proprietary precipitation

hardened martensitic stainless steel and

who refused to change it for a heavily sour

service application. The project (another

operator) overrode my advice not to

accept this material, and several weeks

after start up the plant had to be shut

down with a huge crack in the pressure

envelope. It’s sometimes very hard not to

have that ‘I told you so’ feeling. Of course,

ideas are more often than not bandied

around so that a form of consensus can be

achieved with everyone’s advice being

taken onboard thus avoiding problems.

However, in projects, the most common

corrosion problems that have to be solved

usually occur because of poor preservation

and poor pre-commissioning. “The worst

example I have come across, many

years ago,” he says “was the loss of

two complete offshore production trains:

separation, desalting, stabilisation and all

associated pipework, before start-up

because the pre-commissioning team

had ignored the stipulated procedural

requirements and used untreated seawater

in the 316L system for instrument checks.

I’m glad to say that BP was not the

operator in question. I’ve also seen newly

installed duplex stainless steel pipelines

corroded because the hydrotest water was

not drained properly and desert sand was

allowed to blow into the

opened, wet pipe – a litany

of simple, yet hugely

expensive, errors. Like any

profession though, it is the

mistakes that are

remembered the most, the

times things go right occur

more often but are less

interesting to relate.

Future materialimprovements?Looking at where possible

improvements could be

made with regard to

corrosion resistant alloys Steve states

that: “nowadays there are a sufficient

number of alloys in the materials

selection armoury. Nevertheless,

it would be nice if all end users could

agree on what constitutes an acceptable

material qualification, then the suppliers

could undertake qualification themselves.

I’m personally also not too keen on the

elements of ISO 15156-3 that either

do not impose any environment limits

on materials, or have different limits

for the same alloy in different applications.

And do manufacturers provide enough

information about their new grades so

that it’s relatively easy to keep knowledge

up-to-date? “In addition to the supplier’s

websites that I regularly check out I would

also like to pass on two great sites that

I invariably use: Matweb and Azom

(A to Z of Materials). On another note,

I’d also encourage suppliers to ensure

that their materials’ performance claims

are supported by quality test reports

that are freely available, which will

considerably help when decisions are

being made.

Dog dutyAnd finally, what does a Lead Materials

Engineer do to relax from the hectic time of

getting his choices right in design and

construction work? “Well the answer is

simple,” says Steve “weekends mean ‘dog

duty’. It’s compulsory, so it means I get out

and about, rain or shine, in the local woods

enjoying the flora and spotting the fauna.

I also turn my hand to a little cooking (it’s

the chemistry thing) but I’m not up to

Master Chef wannabe level, yet!”

And here again, as in his everyday work,

you can guess that a lot of enthusiasm

and energy goes into these hobbies.

An overview of the West Nile Delta project.

Steve Jones on one of his rambles in the countryside or is this apre-cookery exhibition?.