By ERIC MOORE
THE Nigerian Corrosion Association (NiCA) has called for collaboration between government, institution of learning, industries and the community in addressing challenges that would guarantee conducive environmental sustainability and responsibility.
President of NiCA, Professor Auwal Kazim, said the gas sector remains the backbone of Nigeria’s economy and its sustainability is essential for collective progress.
Professor Kazim spoke under the theme, “Management of Corrosion in the Midstream and Downstream Oil and Gas Industry” at the ongoing 2024 annual conference of NiCA holding in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Tuesday.
He said as part of efforts to tackle the challenges associated with corrosion in the oil and gas sector and safeguard infrastructures in our home, offices as well as industries, there is need for collaboration to guarantee safety of the environment.
The president said: “Corrosion management is matter of national importance, especially as we strive to optimize operations in the midstream and downstream sectors.”
Prof. Kazim noted that the “ramifications of unchecked corrosion are costly not only in terms of financial loss, but also with regards to safety and environmental impact and operational efficiency, across pipelines, storage facilities, and refining infrastructure.
According to him, corrosion threatens most vital assets unless they are confronted with advanced strategies and cutting edge solutions.
Also speaking, the national conference Chairman, Uche Benedict Ekekwe, said: “The attempts to return to nature is what we see as corrosion.”
He explained: “Corrosion is the act of refining metallic materials or trying to return metals to their original/natural states, where they existed before they were mined or refined by reduction processes or using oxidations, cracking or structural alterations.”
He said the resultant effects of “negative impacts of corrosion cause reactions, or realignment that results to failures of materials contrary to the designed standards.”
Ekekwe also highlighted examples of such failures as witnessed in tank farms, refineries, haulage trucks and processing facilities of hydrocarbon products.
He said: “The impacts of corrosion failures on product pipelines have significantly increased transportation pricing of products through truck haulage to 400 percent.
“This is because where pipeline will charge two percent to transport PMS, haulage will charge eight percent for trucking at lesser quantity of products.”
Other stakeholders, who spoke the event called for the introduction of Corrosion as a course in Nigerian institutions of higher learning in engineering departments to facilitate specialization.