Update On The Development Of International Standards For Pipeline Coatings

A new international standard for pipeline concrete coatings - ISO 21809-5:2010 - Petroleum and natural gas industries - External coatings for buried or submerged pipelines used in pipeline transportation systems - Part 5: External concrete coatings – was published on March 18, 2010, by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

The new standard is part of process that began about 10 years ago. Confronted with multiple and often conflicting national standards and company specifications for pipeline coatings, the industry has been in contact with ISO to develop a global standardized approach to this topic. As a result, in 2001, the ISO subcommittee for pipeline transportation systems (TC67/SC2) of the materials, equipment and offshore structures for petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas industries technical committee (TC67) presented a program for developing new international standards for the main pipeline-coating categories. This program was developed after discussions with the interested stakeholders from the pipeline industry.

New Family Of International Standards
The new family of international standards is intended to create minimum standard requirements for coating raw materials, application processes, testing and inspection methods, as well as the handling and storage of coated pipes. ISO has a standing, 48-month-long development cycle that has been used for the hammering out the pipeline-coating standards.

A work group composed of interested individuals nominated by the ISO countries meets several times a year – usually two or three times – and prepares an initial draft that is then changed, based on comments and feedback from all the interested parties.

The draft goes through four main stages to get published as a new international standard: (1) the committee draft (CD), (2) draft international standard (DIS), (3) final draft international standard (FDIS) and (4) published international standard.

The work group is supported throughout the development cycle by ISO’s editorial committee (EDC) that ensures the successive draft versions and final published version are in conformance with the ISO norms.

The main categories of pipeline coatings covered by the new family of standards are fusion-bonded epoxy (FBE), 2-layer polyethylene (2LPE), 3-layer polyethylene and polypropylene (3LPE/PP), concrete coatings and field joint coatings. The standards for each of these categories are in different stages of development.

The FBE coatings standard - ISO 21809-2:2007 - Petroleum and natural gas industries - External coatings for buried or submerged pipelines used in pipeline transportation systems - Part 2: Fusion-bonded epoxy coatings - was published in 2007, but ISO decided in April 2010 to change the title of the standard to single layer fusion-bonded epoxy coatings and to revise the standard to include single-layer high temperature FBE coatings in its scope.

The field joint coatings standard - ISO 21809-3:2008 - Petroleum and natural gas industries - External coatings for buried or submerged pipelines used in pipeline transportation systems - Part 3: Field joint coatings - was published by ISO in December 2008 and has already been re-opened for an amendment that is in the committee draft stage.