Tougher concrete structures to service and protect oil and gas operations

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Tougher concrete structures to service and protect oil and gas operations

Moncarz, P.D. / Krstulovic-Opara, N.

Large on-shore and off-shore facilities for production, loading and unloading, and storage of petroleum products are being constructed with the use of reinforced concrete. Recent examples include the monumental platforms associated with the Sakhalin II development, and the development of new LNG facilities driven by the world demand for transportation of large quantities of natural gas over large distances. The political climate of the 21st century dictates a much higher attention level to questions of safety and security of these facilities. Terrorist threat requires not only a heightened surveillance and threat-response readiness, but also the incorporation of design features making such threats less likely to succeed. These design features include both structural and material level considerations. The authors discuss some of the currently available approaches to making concrete structures tougher to terrorist attacks while also making them more serviceable and longer lasting. Experience from research and field studies on fiber reinforced concrete, on slurry infiltrated mat concrete, and on Kevlar wrapping of critical concrete structure elements in high seismicity areas are some of the discussed topics. Suggestions are made how these examples could lead to toughening of oil and gas concrete facilities or of concrete protective barriers.