By George Gill
 
Cortec launched a new Middle East joint venture with its regional distributor United Corrosion Technologies to supply corrosion inhibitors in the region and North Africa.
 
Cortec Middle East will support the region with service centers in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Jordan along with distributors such as The Kanoo Group. "Understanding the unique nature of corrosion challenges in the Middle East, we’re strengthening our commitment to work closely with the engineering community to mitigate the detrimental effects of corrosion in the Middle East and North Africa," the company said in its announcement.
 
Tim Whited, Cortec's director of corrosion engineering and field services, noted both the atmospheric and underground environment in the Middle Eastern region promote accelerated corrosion of metals. "In many areas the rate of corrosion on metal surfaces exposed to atmospheric conditions is typically accelerated due to the impact of moist, very hot, salt air," Whited told Lube Report. "Underground structures such as pipelines, etc. face aggressive corrosion attack in many areas due to the presence of a high groundwater table that is very saline."
 
According to Whited, most industries in the region benefit in multiple ways from Cortec's variety of corrosion solutions. "Oil and gas companies such as Saudi Aramco and the Adnoc group of companies are benefitting from Cortec’s CorroLogic family of systems designed to mitigate corrosion on [above ground storage tanks], cased pipeline sections and insulated piping," he said. " Preservation of spare parts and mothballing of facilities that are temporarily out-of-service are equally  important services for those industries."
 
Cortec's Vapor Phase Corrosion Inhibitor and Migrating Corrosion Inhibitor products, many of which are biodegradable, control multi-metal corrosion in a variety of applications within aggressive corrosive environments. The offerings include a wide variety of lubricants, greases, gear oils and hydraulic fluids.