The blue goop, trademarked RG-2400, is a surprisingly effective corrosion control product that is applied between pipe and its insulation.

“Pipes need to be insulated to conserve energy and prevent condensation,” said Mike Devenport, co-owner of Alaska Insulation Supply the product's distributor. “Moisture on an iron pipe is not a big deal, that's just surface rust. But when you put insulation on pipe, that traps the moisture and you get crevice corrosion.”

That can cause oil leaks, damage tundra, and cost millions of dollars to shut down a pipeline, repair the damage and clean up the land.

But the RG line of products can prevent corrosion, Devenport said. With a consistency similar to bubble gum or toothpaste, it is easily applied — it can be sprayed, brushed or painted on with a mitt. It doesn't dry, crack or peel like paints or epoxies, manufacturers said. It flows easily down well casings.

The line of RG-2400 products is a non-curing silicone-based gel that adheres to metal. It's environmentally benign, yet it won't readily break down.

It offers four levels of protection, said Shawn Eastham, general manager of DeNovus LLC, which makes the product. The gel serves as a barrier, blocking moisture from the surface. Once applied, it creates a thin mineral barrier on the material.

It doesn't cure, or harden, like many products. As the pipes or wires expand and contract, so does the gel. If it's damaged, it merges back together.

When the product fails — and all products eventually fail, Eastham said — the gel offers a buffering system so that when water seeps over it, it raises the PH levels in the moisture, essentially stopping the corrosion-causing enzymes.

On the Slope, ConocoPhillips and BP are both using it to insert down well casings. Exxon Mobil is also using the product on a Russian project.

Mike Devenport of Alaska Insulation Supply displays a bucket of RG-2400. The sticky blue material can be applied to pipes like fingerpaint to prevent corrosion. PHOTO/Melissa Campbell/AJOC

The oil giant plans to use the gel on its R Pad in the Prudhoe Bay unit this spring, and hopes to treat all of its 800 wells over the next year or two, Sulte said.

“Our largest concern is external corrosion, because the pipeline is all insulated,” he said. “BP has a big program that addresses that, and this can be a piece of that program.”

In the past, an epoxy paint was mainly used for under-insulation corrosion control. But once that paint cracks, water is free to creep in and eat away.

Sulte and Devenport noted that this product would not have prevented BP's recent corrosion problems that shut down the gathering stations last summer. That corrosion occurred from the inside.

Devenport, a former teacher and assistant principal, is the sole Alaska distributor for RG-2400 line of products. While RG sounds like a dream product for corrosion control, Devenport said selling it isn't easy.

“This gel is a delicate cocktail of corrosion inhibitors,” he said. “It's so simple, but I'm getting looks like, what kind of snake oil are you selling?

“Selling the science has been easy,” Devenport added. “We've talked to chemists and corrosion engineers, and they all believe in the science. But there's a whole different group who have to apply the product to prevent corrosion. When I try selling the application, I tell people they can apply it like finger paint on the pipe — you just make it blue. They listen, then sit back and look up at the ceiling. 'OK, Mike, thanks.' They're used to having to get people special training or certifications.”

The formula was designed in the 1970s for the automotive industry, Eastham said. The U.S. auto industry used it as a corrosion control for its brake cables. From there, manufacturers began selling it to the Navy to lubricate and protect the cables used to raise and lower the aircraft elevators on carriers.

Pipelines seemed like a good next step, Eastham said. “With pipelines, the problems are so unique, it takes a special product.”

DeNovus came up with a special formula for Alaska's North Slope. “It's tough to have a product to apply at minus-30 degrees but it goes on to a pipe that's 250 degrees,” Eastham said. “We had to formulate a product for the extreme conditions.”

“The difficult part of the project is that we put in the product, but we won't know if it will work in 20 years,” BP's Sulte said. “We have to make the best choice on what we know now.”

About the only downside is the cost, about $200 a gallon, Devenport said. But it can be applied in much less time than traditional methods, and it works for longer periods of time.

Sulte said it costs about $100,000 in gel alone for one pad — about six times the cost of traditional casing filler methods — so BP isn't saving money in the short term.

“The question is, is RG-2400 six times better than casing filler? We decided it was,” he said. “We won't know the true effect of the product for 20 years.”

For each well the company can keep from failing, it's a $1.5 million savings, he said.

Some 58 wells have failed as a result of casing corrosion, he said. In the past, crews shut down, repaired and replaced. “Now we're trying to prevent,” Sulte said.

Melissa Campbell can be reached at melissa.campbell@alaska