WEBINAR SUMMARY
In this 1.5 hour webinar, we hear from Douglas Bennet; ITS Services (Malaysia) on Determining the Risk of Microbiologically Influenced Corrosion (MIC) and Danika Nicoletti; LuminUltra Technologies (Canada) on Using Biomarkers, Next Generation Sequencing, and Trending to Identify MIC Risk. There will be a Q&A after these presentations too.
Douglas Bennet
Presentation overview: There are many different techniques available for the detection, quantification and identification of microorganisms and the aim of this review is to discuss some examples which can be used within the oil and gas industry readily.
A comparative market study was carried out for this review to generate a comparison on; costs, skills required, turn-around time, data and other applicable information for each technique available. Costs are based on a ‘per sample’ estimation which does not include any associated costs for skilled personnel to take the samples or interpret the results of the sample analysis. Skills required for the various techniques ranges from very simple tasks, such as filling a clean sample bottle wearing suitable PPE, including nitrile gloves to avoid cross contamination and provide personal protection to a highly skilled requirement, for instance, where a molecular microbiological technique is employed. Turn-around time is an important consideration when selecting a material or technique as it may have a significant impact on determining the frequency of sampling within a monitoring schedule.
Correlating these results to determine the risk of Microbiologically Influenced Corrosion (MIC) is the key. Analytical results alone will not provide the answer and this review outlines the other relevant parameters required to accurately determine the risk of MIC.
Danika Nicoletti
Presentation overview: Microbiologically-influenced corrosion (MIC) presents a critical threat to oil and gas infrastructure due to its ability to cause equipment degradation and failure, process interruptions, safety hazards, and product quality issues. Monitoring the general biomass in a sample can be helpful to inform mitigation decisions, however, more specific methods of monitoring are required to understand MIC risk in an oil and gas system. In this presentation you will learn about a MIC biomarker recently identified to correlate with corrosive biofilms by an industry leading research group, the micH gene, how Next Generation Sequencing can help to design site specific microbial monitoring programs, and how baseline trending is critical to monitoring an at-risk system.