Oct 27, 11 min. read

It is necessary to enact binding legislation for ministries and companies to activate protection programs

We carry out cathodic protection programs, periodic maintenance and measurements of the level of corrosion to avoid such dangers.

We submitted a report to the officials of the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company about the Ataka power station, which has been operating for many years.

All special incidents must be criminalized for negligence and negligence whatever the cause

Engineer Ashraf Abdel Basir, Chairman of Mecorr Petroleum Services and General Contracting Company specialized in providing engineering and protection systems for facilities and protection from corrosion and rust in special statements to Power News that his group includes branches in several countries, including Mecorr Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, pointing out that a group has been launched Mecorr International has been operating for several months in Kazakhstan and Hungary, as well as another branch in South Sudan.

He attributed the international expert Ashraf Abdul Basir the reason for the establishment of branches of Micor in these countries that the petroleum activity in these countries is very advanced and the thought of industrial security and the protection of enterprises from the dangers of corrosion and rust and thunder and lightning dangers and lightning barriers that are installed on tanks and high surfaces and ground systems to unload cargo The antistatic that caused the fires all this made us think about the establishment of a specialized company because of the interest of the whole world in this area.

Abdel-Basir said that the Egyptian market lacks the definition of the importance of cathodic protection as defined by the modern world and the existence of protectionist designs for the oil and gas sectors, wells and pipelines, which carry burning petroleum products, warehouses, tanks or non-petroleum materials such as water because these are metal installations and may cause disinterest in the phenomenon of corrosion. Out in large losses.

"If we assume, for example, that there is a refrigerator or any electrical appliance on the ground for a long time, it will certainly be eaten," he said in an exclusive interview with Power News. "What about the facilities and lines that have been underground for decades and are very exposed to salt and water in the soil will certainly cause rust and corrosion?" And the diversion of the product, whether petroleum products, gas or water whatever, which puts the lives of the safe and the environment and the lives of those who live next to the areas of work of these projects in addition to incurring companies and expose the investments that were spent on these lines and projects to large losses, A lot of great activity. ”

Abdul Basir listed part of his supervisory record before the establishment of Micor, where he said I was and still work as Director of the Cathodic Protection Department of the Canadian Consulting Office and this department is responsible for providing all designs and technical support to Saudi Aramco as companies there comply with binding legislation, which prevents the implementation of any project without Prevention measures to protect against corrosion and rust.

He added that Aramco implements annual projects with huge amounts estimated at billions. Designs through the Canadian engineering and construction company SNC-Lavalin, ranked among the top 10 companies in the world and contracted with Saudi Aramco to provide designs across all sectors “Civil Engineering, Electricity and Cathodic Protection .

Prior to that, she worked as director of the same specialty in international engineering companies such as Jacobs, which is ranked second in the world rankings and Worley Parsons for a large project in the Yanbu region, which will cost tens of billions and with Total in a gas liquefaction project in Yemen. She has served as a regional director for cathodic protection for a number of countries and companies.

He pointed out that the American International Association is the international organization which is the international organization that issues the international standards for how to combat corrosion and rust and how to address it through design programs that prevent this risk of raiding investments and thus impact on the product and these specifications are available in the Egyptian joint oil companies, because the partners Foreigners have experience in keeping away from rust and corrosion problems.

However, the oil sector in Egypt is fully aware of the importance of the phenomenon of rust and corrosion, but it collides with the problem of the correct application of the system or partially applied or not at all.We have many examples of this, such as the fire of the Naphtha warehouse at Alexandria Petroleum Company and the fire of GAPCO field in October field several years ago.

He explained that the restructuring of the oil installations provides more financial resources, estimated at billions of dollars, if applied cathodic protection programs.

On the efforts of Micor to raise awareness of the dangers of corrosion in the sectors of oil, electricity and water, Eng. Ashraf Abdel Basir to conduct free training courses and visits to make companies aware of the seriousness of their lack of interest in cathodic protection.

In 2001, Eng. Mohamed Tawila, the chairman of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation and then the president of the Mechanical Engineers Association, asked for a series of training programs and workshops. I was one of the lecturers to educate workers on the prevention and control of corrosion crises as one of the obstacles to the development of sectors and one of the reasons for increasing its cost. He has awareness-raising as he is not a decision-maker and these preventive measures are the basis of occupational safety and health programs to protect workers in the concerned sectors to preserve their lives and their companies without delay.

For example, citizens and workers in the delivery companies are walking next to the gas lines. For companies with cost outside Egypt is very high.

And on how to benefit the sectors of oil and electricity and the Ministry of Irrigation and water and sanitation facilities and other the existence of an Egyptian company with a previous experience in this field and the fact that its Chairman Eng. Ashraf Abdel Basir of the most important international experts in cathodic protection programs . Mecorr has submitted a report to the officials of the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company about Ataqa power station, which has been in operation for many years. The report included a list of the existing risks and the permanent danger that is almost constant from the plant and the absence of protection systems. We have introduced a protection program two years ago and we are still waiting. ”

"I recently met with the chairman of the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC), Mr. Gaber Desouky, who is a visionary and a truly sophisticated person," he said.

The chairman of the holding company welcomed the directives and gave directives to his deputies to cooperate with us in order to carry out a survey of these stations and assess them to determine the level of danger.

As a result, Eng. Mahmoud Al-Naqib issued a decision to establish a central administration whose main task is the continuous inspection of production plants and the work of the protection report for them, but the actual implementation has not yet been.

He demanded the need to criminalize all special incidents of negligence and negligence. Leakage in pipelines and warehouses is not a matter of justice.

The president called for the existence of a binding legislation for companies to prevent corrosion. State of wasted public money.