Oil and Gas
The importance of fluoropolymers for the sector
With the rising global demand for energy, volatile prices, and increasingly severe environmental regulations, the oil and gas industry is facing increasing pressure to reduce operating costs, optimize the performance of installations, and improve its environmental footprint.
The combination of powerful equipment, chemicals and processes involved with oil and gas production creates an extremely hazardous environment. Oil and gas exploitations, therefore, require robust materials that can operate in harsh conditions, while ensuring safety for humans and the environment, and increasing production efficiency. Oil becoming harder to extract requires drilling deeper, leading to greater temperatures and higher pressures. In addition, the sealing components used in oil extraction equipment are being exposed to higher pressures of carbon dioxide, and greater concentrations of methane, hydrogen sulfide (H2S), steam, ammonia and amine-based corrosion inhibitors.
Fluoropolymers are crucial across all sectors for the oil and gas, including upstream and downstream, and their transition towards stronger sustainability as they enable substantial efficiency gains, making the sectors both safer and more competitive. The properties of fluoropolymers make them critical for fluid extraction and delivery, encapsulation, temperature and level detection, as well as leak and compliance with emission regulations.
This unique combination of properties allows the European oil and gas industries to be internationally competitive thanks to their high level of efficiency, while maintaining environmentally safer operations in harsh environments and ensuring workers’ safety.
Unique properties of fluoropolymers and their benefits for the sector
The unique properties of fluoropolymers make them critical to many applications in the oil and gas sector, as for example linings and protective coatings for metallic equipment and pipes in order to prevent corrosion and contamination of oil products, sealing elements allowing to contain hazardous chemicals workstream.
Their unique chemical structure leads to best in class combined chemical and thermal resistance within polymers leading to durability, non-stick and non-wetting properties which provide a number of benefits including:
Enhanced reliability
Fire resistance
Durable and effective protection against heat, aggressive fuels and chemicals
Low permeation
Enhanced safety
Fluoropolymers and the future of the industry
Fluoropolymers have an essential role to play in the future of the oil and gas industry. Their unique properties provide the necessary conditions to ensure efficiency and production optimization while improving safety for workers and the environment, including by:
- Ensuring energy efficiency.
- Improving lifetime therefore maximizing productivity and minimizing costs.
- Limiting maintenance needs therefore reducing workers exposure.
- Reducing carbon emissions and increasing heat recovery.
- Reducing chemicals emissions.
- Protecting workers and the environment from chemicals.