TITLE:
Quantifying Corrosion Rate in Oil and Gas Wells by Measuring Alloying Constituents in Produced Water
AUTHORS:
Joseph J. Puthuvelil, Fayez A. Al Ammarie, Awad H. Malki
KEYWORDS:
Produced Water, ICP-OES, Ion Dissolution, Alloy Steel, Oil & Gas Wells, Corrosion Rate, Saturation Index
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering,
Vol.12 No.12,
December
4,
2024
ABSTRACT: Most oil and gas wells worldwide are completed with low alloy carbon steel due to cost-effectiveness, despite its high susceptibility to corrosion. Corrosion in alloy steels occurs through galvanic or electrolytic reactions, resulting in the release of metallic ions. This release adversely affects the strength and integrity of production tubing. The current study focused on quantifying the amount of alloying constituents present in the produced waters of oil and gas wells using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) to calculate the corrosion rate on the production tubing. Two types of alloy steel tubing, API 5CT T-95 and API 5CT J55, were selected. The wells were chosen based on sweet and sour production. The levels of ions present in the produced water—Nickel, Chromium, Manganese, Molybdenum, and Iron—were measured. Ion dissolution was converted to corrosion rate using the exposed area of the tubing and the water flow rate. The study concluded that a very high corrosion rate occurs in sweet wells completed with T-95 metallurgy, whereas the corrosion rate in sour gas producers is significantly less compared to sweet producers. For the oil wells, although they are sour producers, a very low corrosion rate was observed with API 5CT J55 metallurgy. Furthermore, the study revealed that quantifying the alloying constituents in produced water is key to developing suitable corrosion projection approaches, predicting the service life of production tubing in gas and oil wells and metallic structures, and guiding production engineers to make informed decisions and timely responses to corrosion threats before failure.