Corrosion under insulation (CUI) is a critical challenge that affects the integrity of assets for which the oil and gas industry is not immune. Over the last few decades, both downstream and upstream industry segments have recognized the magnitude of CUI and challenges faced by the industry in its ability to handle CUI risk-based assessment, predictive detection and inspection of CUI. It is a concern that is hidden, invisible to inspectors and prompted mainly by moisture ingress between the insulation and the metallic pipe surface. The industry faces significant issues in the inspection of insulated assets, not only of pipes, but also tanks and vessels in terms of detection accuracy and precision. Currently, there is no reliable NDT detection tool that can predict the CUI spots in a safe and fast manner. In this study, a cyber physical-based approach is being presented to identify susceptible locations of CUI through a collection of infrared data overtime. The experimental results and data analysis demonstrates the feasibility of utilizing machine-learning techniques coupled with thermography to predict areas of concern. This is through a simplified clustering and classification model utilizing the Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). This is a unique and innovative inspection technique in tackling complex challenges within the oil and gas industry, utilizing trending technologies such as big data analytics and artificial intelligence.

Corrosion under insulation (CUI) is a major problem for petroleum and petrochemical process industries that affects the plant mechanical integrity and attacks assets. CUI can result in sudden and hazardous leaks (safety concern), and plant shutdowns with high losses of production (economical concern).
Traditional detecting methods of CUI to cut a window in thermal insulation used to inspect visually, to measure the thickness, and then return thermal insulation back, giving high chance for water and moisture ingress, accelerating CUI, moreover big amount of scaffolding erection along with thermal insulation removal required.
SHARQ (Eastern Petrochemical Company, one of SABIC companies) is pioneer to study CUI, evaluating many Non–Destructive techniques has proven Pulsed Eddy Current (PEC) as the most effective technique in terms of integrity and cost optimization.
Considering all available techniques, all aspects studied, such as range of applications, features, and limitations, it is concluded and verified to meet our inspection plan strategy needs.
PEC does not require thermal insulation removal; optimize scaffolding erection, has a wide range of applications related to thickness, and temperature. PEC approved by international codes and standards (API) to meet RBI Meridium software requirements.
The validation study results show cost savings of more than 50% compared to traditional thickness measurement methodology, moreover it reduces EHSS (Environment, Health, Safety, and Security) negative impact reduces the probability of safety incidents due to reducing labor, man-hours, and eliminating many associated activities with potential hazard and risk.
PEC has high productivity, easily operated, and provides comprehensive and professional inspection report

Steel pipeline is the optimum choice for transporting oil and gas due to its excellent strength,
material properties and cost. Some pipeline services require special attention to avoid
corrosion or erosion, e.g., corrosive water injection systems. To address this, internal liners
have been introduced, including cement-lined to protect the pipelines from such conditions.
Even though cement-liners enhance the reliability of the pipelines, there are still challenges
related to inspection. The inspection of cement-lined pipelines is difficult with in-line
inspection tools (ILI) due to surface roughness of the cement, which impacts the movement.
Also, the cement lining is too thick for the sensors of the ILI tool to measure the steel
thickness through the liner.
Cement-lined pipelines are frequently used for water injection system facilities where
common inspection techniques cannot be used due to inherent limitations. As safety,
reliability and continuity are important at Saudi Aramco operations, the team spare no effort
to ensure the integrity of these pipelines utilizing different inspection techniques. In 2017,
electromagnetic acoustic transmission (EMAT) inspection technology was utilized for the first
time on cement-lined pipelines at the water injection facilities. This paper describes the
capability and successful deployment of EMAT inspection technology.