Subject - Interview with Dr. Antonio Martinez, Pressure Systems Technical Advisor at ADMA OPCO Dr.

Antonio Martinez Niembro, Ph.D currently works as Pressure Systems Technical Advisor in Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (ADMA OPCO). He is speaking at Corrosion Management 2009, scheduled to take place from 11 14 October at the Hilton Abu Dhabi. Dr. Antonio Martinez reflected on Corrosion Management: Mitigation and corrosion control is directly related to the involvement of corrosion engineers in courses, capacitating and certification programs (such as cathodic protection and coatings), making publications in technical journals, corrosion conferences and participation in technical meetings such as NACE International UAE Chapter. Increase the awareness of the corrosion costs in our companies is a must in order to implement the right corrosion control methods to maximize the conservation of our natural resources, reduce economic losses, and protect the environment; not only in the production and manufacturing sectors, but also in other sectors of the economy, such as infrastructure, utilities, transportation and government. - In your opinion, what is the most significant challenge facing operators in the Middle East today? Gas and oil operators in the Middle East are facing common corrosion challenges due to aging facilities, increasing water cuts, H2S, CO2 and salinity of reservoirs, process chloride stress corrosion cracking, corrosion induced by bacteria in oil and water injection systems, higher pressures and temperatures, and increasing loss of experienced personnel. - Which Corrosion Management technique/strategy helps ADMA OPCO to prevent spills, plant shutdown, loss of income and production? ADMA OPCO implemented an aggressive program to monitor and repair damaged risers of subsea pipelines due to atmospheric corrosion in the splash zone, increase of intelligent pigging inspections and cleaning programs of water injection lines, improvement of the water injection quality, inspection of dead legs and programs to detect early corrosion and replace before leaks occur. The development of a recent Integrity Management Framework along with the Corrosion Management Strategy is expected to ensure No Hydrocarbon Leaks policy, and production loss due to leaks. - In which area of Corrosion Management would you say lays ADMA OPCOs strength?

In operations spanning 47 years we can say that the areas of success are offshore cathodic protection, corrosion management in sour reservoirs, corrosion inhibition programs in oil and gas systems, jointly combined with annual corrosion monitoring programs in the three offshore Assets being operated, and painting campaigns to control atmospheric corrosion of offshore structures and equipment. Lessons learnt from our own experiences and from other industries is a continuous process to avoid repeating the bad experiences of the past. Dr.Antonio Martinez Niembro, Ph.D has a Chemical Engineering degree from Caracas, Venezuela and a Ph.D. in Physics-Chemistry and Corrosion from the University of Dijon, France. He has worked as corrosion engineer in the petrochemical and oil industries since 1985 in areas related with cathodic protection in congested areas, troubleshooting and maintenance of cathodic protection systems, downhole corrosion, inhibition, internal corrosion, and more recently as integrity management of aging structures and pressure systems. Dr. Antonio is an author of publications in the field of research of the reactivity of Solids, Inhibitors, Microbiological Corrosion and Cathodic Protection. He is also a NACE Fellow for more than 20 years.