Category Archives: MATCOR

And the winner is – RUSTY!

The Jolly Green Giant, the Pillsbury Doughboy, the Geico Gecko, Ronald McDonald, the Energizer Bunny… please all step aside and make room for the world’s newest, and soon to be famous, icon, RUSTY the MATCOR Chili Pepper spokesperson.

“My mission is to protect the world’s infrastructure from the evil scourge of corrosion.”

—RUSTY

RUSTY is not trying to sell vegetables, biscuits in a can, hamburgers or batteries. No, RUSTY’s mission is to protect the world’s infrastructure from the evil scourge of corrosion. We look forward to RUSTY’s corrosion adventures.

A big shout out to Ted Morris of Nustar Energy, a 38-year veteran of the pipeline industry who has spent the last 29 years in Corrosion Control. Ted Morris was the grand prize winner of our “Name MATCOR’s Icon Contest”. The contest garnered a tremendous number of very thoughtful entries, but RUSTY was an immediate favorite of the selection committee. Ted will be retiring in the near future, having served the industry well, and we at MATCOR dare say that RUSTY may prove to be one of his great legacies. Thanks Ted!

A very close second place in the naming contest goes to Fernando Villamizar Ariza of Ingacor Colombia, with his name entry of “Cowboy Rust”. Thank you Fernando!

There were many honorable mentions and we thank everyone for the effort and creativity.

Name the MATCOR Hot Sauce Character!

For the past several NACE Conferences, MATCOR has spiced up the lives of NACE Conference attendees by handing out our highly coveted Hot Sauce with a cheerful Chili Pepper character on the bottle.

So Much Hot Sauce!

This year’s cancelled NACE Conference has left us with a large inventory of Hot Sauce that we intended to hand out in Houston. On the bottle this year our Chili Pepper character dons a Texas sized cowboy hat and boot for the occasion.

This character has also been included in several recent NACE eNews ads and our marketing team feels that he/she needs a name!

So, we thought we would ask our newsletter recipients for suggestions. 

Send us a name suggestion and we’ll mail you a bottle of MATCOR Hot Sauce!

The first 50 people to respond with a name will be sent a free bottle of Hot Sauce. 

Plus a T-shirt for finalists!

The top 5 suggestions, as determined by our Marketing team, will also receive a “MATCOR Factory Safe” long sleeved T-shirt for their participation.

Please help us give our Chili Pepper character a fitting name!

Complete the form below to submit your idea!


MATCOR is Hiring!

Please spread the word that MATCOR is hiring!

2019 has been a year of tremendous growth and development in the corrosion industry. Thank you for the huge part you’ve played in MATCOR’s continued success. We are committed to helping you achieve your corrosion prevention goals by providing the best services and products in the cathodic protection business. To keep up with increasing demand, we’ve expanded our footprint in the Gulf, Permian and Rockies, acquired additional drilling rigs, Mud Puppy filtration systems and water trucks, and are looking for new team members.

Click here for a list of MATCOR job postings

Dan Vallot Joins MATCOR as Account Manager

Dan Vallot, MATCORMeet Dan Vallot, our newest Account Manager. Dan is based at our Gonzales, Louisiana, office and covers the Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Georgia. Dan comes to us from Versa Integrity Group where he sold NDT services. Prior to that, he sold specialty mechanical services for Carber. Dan has 3 children, the oldest is attending LSU. In his free time he enjoys being with his family, cooking and gardening. He is also the Director for Industry of Faith Louisiana, a faith-based organization that provides support for oil and gas workers in the state of Louisiana. Please let Dan know how he can assist you to solve your corrosion problems.

Email: dvallot@matcor.com
Mobile: 225-828-7987
9222 Ashland Road
Gonzales, LA 70737

With the addition of Dan, and our new offices in Casper, WY and Midland, TX, we now have a full house of account managers ready to serve you nationally. SEE THE MATCOR SALES TERRITORY MAP

For general inquiries, please use the contact form linked below.
Contact a Corrosion Expert

MATCOR Welcomes Three New Account Managers

We are very pleased to introduce our three new account managers for the Gulf, Mid-Continent and Rockies regions. They are looking forward to working with you to help solve your corrosion problems.

Please be sure to connect with them at your earliest convenience. Dave, Ryan and Trey will all be in attendance at  the 2019 NACE Central Area Conference in San Antonio, so if you haven’t made contact with them before then, please stop by to say hello!

Dave Arnold – Account Manager, Rockies Region

Dave Arnold, Account Manager, RockiesDave comes to us from NCSG Crane and Heavy Haul, where he sold crane services primarily to oil and gas companies and industrial facilities for maintenance and new construction. He is also a United States Operation Iraqi Freedom Veteran of 7-1/2 years and has a Bachelors Degree in kinesiology and physical therapy. Dave will be based at our new Casper, WY office and will cover the states of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Northern New Mexico, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

Email: darnold@matcor.com
Mobile: 307-401-2534
1980 Skyview Drive
Casper, WY 82601

Ryan Spillane – Account Manager, Gulf Region

Ryan Spillane, Account Manager, Gulf RegionBased out of our Wadsworth Street facility in Houston, Ryan will cover the greater Houston area of the Gulf region. Before joining MATCOR, Ryan worked in Business Development for OES Oilfield Services, selling to offshore drilling companies.

Email: rspillane@matcor.com
Mobile: 682-666-2128
1423 Wadsworth Street
Houston, TX 77015

Trey Smith – Account Manager, Mid-Continent Region

Trey Smith, Account Manager, Mid-ContinentTrey joins us to cover the Mid-Continent region including the states of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arkansas and the Texas Panhandle and will be based out of our Guthrie office. Trey is a United States Army Operation Enduring Freedom Veteran of 6 years. He has a BS in Business Management, minoring in Finance, and an MBA. He has 10 years’ experience in the midstream industry with T.D. Williamson and Nalco Champion.

Email: psmith3@matcor.com
Mobile: 405-657-4583
1700 E. Seward Road
Guthrie, OK 73044

For general inquiries, please use the contact form linked below.
Contact a Corrosion Expert

Here we grow again!


The grand opening celebration of our new Midland, TX field office was held on Friday October 18, 2019. A turnout of great clients toured the new facility, checked out our brand new state-of-the-art fleet of equipment, ate some delicious barbecue and won door prizes and MATCOR swag. If you didn’t get the chance to attend, the doors to our Midland office (and all our offices-Chalfont, Guthrie, Houston, and Casper) are always open. We are primed and ready to support clients in the Permian and all regions for years to come.


We are excited to announce that we have just opened two new offices to service the growing demands of the Permian and Rockies regions!

MATCOR Midland, Texas

MATCOR Midland Texas Office
MATCOR’s New Midland Texas Office

6917 South County Road 1276
Midland, TX 79706
Main Office Phone: 832-755-2714

Leadership

Account Manager: Dean Lioliou | 832-755-2714
Area Manager: Chuck Parrish | 405-637-9920
Manager: James Gillespie | 405-531-6888

MATCOR Casper, Wyoming

MATCOR Casper, Wyoming Office
MATCOR Casper, Wyoming Office

1980 Skyview Drive
Casper, WY 82601
Main Office Phone: 307-401-2534

Leadership

Account Manager: Dave Arnold | 307-401-2534
Area Manager: Chuck Parrish | 405-637-9920
Manager: Bryan Green | 307-705-2877

See all MATCOR Locations

PHMSA Rule Making Updates – a look at what is ahead on the US Regulatory Front

See our October 2019 Update on the PHMSA Mega Rule.

Overall
The US Pipeline regulatory environment is poised to see several new rules implemented to expand the scope and effectiveness of pipeline regulations with a goal to improve the integrity and safety of hazardous material pipeline. These rule changes were all initiated years ago and have been winding their way through the regulatory process, soliciting input from the industry and from concerned citizens, environmental groups and other interested parties.

The Liquids “Final Rule”
In January of 2017 in the last few days of the Obama Administration, the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration issued a final rule amending its Rule 49 CFR 195 that among other things expanded integrity management and leak detections beyond high consequence areas (HCA’s). The Final Rule tightened standards and broadened data collection and monitoring requirements for pipeline operators. A few days into the Trump administration, the White House issued a directive to federal agencies to freeze sending new regulations to the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) and withdrawing any regulations sent to the OFR. Thus the liquids “Final Rule” that was 6 years in the making was withdrawn and is awaiting resubmittal by the new administration.
While the exact requirements of the Final Rule may be changed, some of the key changes from the withdrawn rule included:

• Assessment of non-HCA pipeline segments every 10 years in compliance with provisions of 49 CFR Part 195.
• Increased use of inline inspection tools for all hazardous pipelines in HCA.
• Requirement for leak detection systems for covered pipelines in both HCA and non-HCAs.

PHMSA anticipates coming out with their revised “Final Rule” in the Fall of 2018.

The Gas “Mega Rule”

On the gas side of the pipeline regulatory environment, 49 CFR Parts 191 and 192, several public meetings have been held regarding PHMSA’s proposed gas rules, often referred to as the Gas Mega Rule. The rulemaking changes originally recommended would have nearly doubled the current number of pages in the regulations. PHMSA has announced that instead of one Mega Rule, the effort would be broken into three separate rules that are expected to be introduced in 2018 and to go into effect in 2019. Part 1 addresses the expansion of risk assessment and MAOP requirements to include areas in non-High Consequence Areas (HCAs) and moderate consequence areas (MCAs.) Part 2 of the rule making focuses on the expansions of integrity management program regulations including corrosion control to gathering lines and other previously non-regulated lines. Part 3 of the gas rule making is expected to focus on reporting requirements, safety regulations and definitions to include expanding into related gas facilities associated with pipeline systems.

Anode Current Ratings and Soil Resistivity

We appreciate the question: “How does soil resistivity impact current rating.”  The short answer is that resistance has nothing to do with anode rating. Here is a more detailed response:

  1. Anode current rating – all anodes have a current rating based on how long they can be expected to operate at a given current rating.  All anodes have some defined expected life based on current output and time – so many Amp-Hours of service life.  For example a magnesium anode may have an expected consumption rate of 17 lb/Amp-year (7.8 kg/amp) so if a 17 lb anode is operated at 0.1 amps it would have a life of 10 years.  For MMO anodes, they too have an expected life.  For our linear anode rated at 51 mA/m it is important to know that that rating is actually 51 mA/m for 25 years.  So a 100m anode segment with this rating would have an expected life of 127.5 Amp-years.  If this anode were operated at 5.1 amps (full rated capacity) it would be expected to operate for 25 years.  IF it were operated at 2.55 amps (50% of rated capacity) it should last 50 years.  The anode life is generally linear.  Please note that resistance has nothing to do with the anode current rating – the anode current rating merely calculates the life of the anode as a function of how many amps for how long of time.
  2. Actual current output – just because you install an anode rated for 5.1 amps for 25 years (our 100m segment of 51 mA/m SPL-FBR) does not mean that the anode will output this amount of current.  It just means that at that current rating you can expect 25 years of life.  The anode is merely one component of the overall cathodic protection circuit.  The actual output of the anode is function of Ohms Law ( Voltage = Current * Resistance).  It would make sense to note that if the system Voltage were zero (the rectifier were turned off or disconnected) then the anode would not have any current output.  Likewise if the 100m anode segment were installed in a very low resistance environment and driven by a powerful rectifier, the current could be much higher than 5.1 amps which would result in a much shorter life.
  3. Why anode rating is important to the CP designer – the CP designer is tasked with protecting a specific structure for a given period of time (protect this pipeline for 30 years.)  The CP designer then calculates, based on actual testing or established guidelines, the amount of current that should be sufficient to achieve appropriate CP levels to protect the structure.  This results in an answer of some number X of amps required.  If the requirements are to protect the structure for Y number of years, then the anode life required is X * Y (# of amps times # of years).  This defines the minimum amount of anode life that is needed.
  4. The next question the CP designer must address, once it is determined how much current is needed, is how to design a system that will generate that amount of current.  Since Ohms Law dictates that Voltage = Current * Resistance (V=IR) then if we know that the Current = Voltage/Resistance (I=V/R.)  Thus the CP designer must understand how to calculate system resistance (R) and must provide sufficient driving force (V)  Several factors affect system resistance (R) including anode geometry – the longer an anode, the lower its resistance – which in many applications is a big benefit to the linear anode.  One of the great benefits of the linear anode is that because of its length, in most applications the soil resistivity plays a lesser role since the anode resistance to earth is generally low for a wide range of soil resistivities due to its length.  For extremely high resistance environments, linear anodes may be the best option since short anodes will not have a low enough resistance.
  5. There are other factors that go into CP design including current distribution and making sure sufficient current is being applied across the entire structure.

CP Design can be very complicated.  I hope that the above explanation is helpful, but if there is a specific application to evaluate, please contact us with the details.  We are also available, for a reasonable engineering fee, to develop and/or review CP system designs.

Ted Huck

VP, Technical Sales

Dean Lioliou Joins MATCOR

MATCOR Houston, Dean LioliouWe are pleased to welcome Dean Lioliou to the MATCOR Team as the Gulf Coast Region Account Manager.

Dean was most recently over sales for ALS Oil & Gas’ Pipeline & Asset Integrity division. His focus was on fiber optic pipeline leak detection, cathodic protection monitoring, corrosion under insulation analysis through thermal imaging technology, and pipeline leak surveying utilizing drone technology. Prior to ALS, he spent many years at Abriox as the Southern Area Regional Sales Manager focusing on Cathodic Protection monitoring.

Dean is very involved with NACE, currently serving as Vice Chairman of the TX/LA Section, a member of the exhibits and conferences committee for NACE International, and is involved in the Houston, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi sections. He is also NACE CP Level 2 certified.

Please join us in congratulating Dean and welcoming him to the organization. He can be reached at 832-755-2714 or by email at dlioliou@matcor.com.

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