“Corrosion under insulation is a hidden and pervasive threat to life, property, and environment, and the cost of accidents and mitigation is staggeringly high,” says Frode Wiggen, lead on CUI at DNV. “It’s time the industry took control of this hidden killer. To do so, we should look at both new and established methodologies, but also to collaboration and digital solutions.”

As a much-needed first step, DNV published a recommended practice to manage the CUI threat in December 2019. This practice DNV-RP-G109 Risk-based management of corrosion under insulation was developed as part of a collaborative project with partners from across the oil and gas industry. It provides a novel methodology to guide asset managers on the most effective and efficient way to assess, mitigate and systematically manage the risk of CUI.

The development follows DNV's approach to explore the issues most troubling our partners in the oil and gas industry, to collaborate on possible solutions, and to ultimately establish standards to safely and effectively manage these issues.

On 28 January 2020, DNV and Equinor hosted a joint webinar discussing how the industry can better manage CUI risk. We answered pressing CUI questions, presented what we have learnt so far as we look to improve CUI management, and explored where the industry can find easy wins.

In March 2020 DNV launched CUI Manager. This digital tool is an answer to the pressing question of how to manage the uncertainty of something that you can’t see or readily inspect. It is an interactive tool that combines our recommended practice with your asset data to identify and monitor risk and track mitigation actions. More on this to follow.

To begin taking control of CUI, we invite you first to download a free preview of our recommended practice: DNV-RP-G109 Risk-based management of corrosion under insulation. This provides the concept, approach, and context for the methodology that underlies our work on CUI.