Corrosion Prevention and Metallurgy Manual 1200 CP for Pipelines

1210 General Information

Cathodic protection prevents corrosion of a metal in contact with an electrolyte by
causing direct current to flow from the electrolyte to the metal. If a pipeline coating
were perfect, no metal would be in contact with an electrolyte (soil or water) and
corrosion would not occur. However, there are almost always flaws (holidays) in the
coating where metal is in contact with the surrounding soil or water and where
corrosion can occur. Cathodic protection is used to prevent corrosion at these
coating holidays.
Magnetic Flux Leakage devices, such as British Gas Online, Pipetronix Magnescan,
Rosen, Microline, Vetco Vetcolog, or Tuboscope Linalog intelligent pigs, are often
used for corrosion inspection. Also, Ultrasonic intelligent pigs such as TDW Flaw-
sonic, NKK, or Pipetronix Ultrascan can be used for pipeline inspection. See
Chapter 400 for more information on Non-Destructive Testing of pipelines.

1211 Federal Regulations

Federal (D.O.T.) regulations mandate cathodic protection for buried and submerged
oil and gas pipelines. 49 CFR 192 covers gas pipelines and 49 CFR 195 covers
hazardous liquid (including oil and petroleum product) pipelines. These regulations
must be complied with where applicable.

1212 Types of Systems

Two types of systems are commonly used to cathodically protect pipelines:
impressed current systems and galvanic anode systems. These are shown schemati-
cally in Figures 1200-1 and 1200-2, respectively. In the vast majority of cases, recti-
fiers are the source of impressed current, and magnesium alloy is used (on land) for
galvanic anodes.

Fig. 1200-1 Impressed Current CP System Fig. 1200-2 Galvanic Anode CP System

Chevron Corporation 1200-3 August 1999