With the gradual depletion of oil and gas resources on land, to exploit marine resources is the only way to easeChina’s energy crisis. South China Sea and East China Sea are rich in oil and gas resources, while advanced marine engineering materials which had developed these energy sources have long been subject to foreign countries. Compared with traditional hard steel pipe, marine hose possesses advantages in terms of anti-corrosion, high-pressure resistance, suppleness, zero weight and convenience to install. And the steel for armor layer is the core component of the hose, bearing the pressure from oil and gas gathering and transportation. The production of steel materials of this kind has been monopolized by Wellstream from US, NKT fromDenmark, Technip-Coflexip fromFranceand other companies.Chinaremains a blank page in this field.
Through unremitting efforts, the R&D group in RAL has developed the prototype and industrial trial sample of a new armored hose steel for marine applications, which is low-cost and corrosion resistant and possesses a high intensity level, with comprehensive corrosion-resistant properties including its excellent resistance to sulfide stress corrosion cracking, hydrogen induced cracking, hydrogen induced embrittlement and corrosion, high temperature and high pressure carbon dioxide corrosion and seawater corrosion. Meanwhile, RAL has, systematically, worked on the study of the corrosion mechanism and behavior of the material, mastered key technologies of production, thus laying a solid foundation for the industrial production.