Pipelines & Midstream
Pipeline integrity: corrosion, cathodic protection and inspection
What wears a buried steel pipeline down and how operators keep ahead of it: coatings, cathodic protection, smart pigs, pressure tests, direct assessment and 811.
Home / Writers / Esteban Villarreal
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Esteban Villarreal
Esteban is from Corpus Christi, Texas, and writes about pipelines, terminals and refining along the Gulf Coast and beyond. He likes a good process diagram and a clear answer to where the barrel goes next.
Industry Explained
Inside a refinery: distillation, cracking and the product slate
What happens to a barrel of crude between the tank farm and the truck rack: distillation, cracking, coking, hydrotreating, reforming, alkylation and blending.
Pipelines & Midstream
Pipeline pigging: what the pigs do and why operators run them
Cleaning pigs, batching spheres and smart pigs that read the pipe wall: how pigging works, from the launcher barrel to the receiver at the far end of the line.