Corrosion Essay

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The major effect in the corrosion of steel in oil and gas environment is related to specific crude oil produced from a field. Different crude oil is said to have different effects on steel corrosion with identical salt water composition. The protectiveness of the corrosion product layer formed on the steel is actually the primary effect of the steel corrosion in the mixture of crude oil and salt water. Corrosion of steel does not give the actual result of the behavior of steel in the production environment when the corrosion tests conducted on the steel with salt water only. Corrosion occurs by some internal and external factors. The internal factors always related to the metal used. Surface condition, steel structure and presence at surface …show more content…

CO2 in oil and gas production cause very fast deterioration of alloys which contains less than 12% of carbon (2014. Oilfield Metallurgy and Corrosion. 3rd (2014)Edition. Craig). Carbon steel or low alloy steel shows the poor resistance to this type of corrosion (Kermani 2003). Dry CO2 gas is a corrosive gas when dissolved in an aqueous phase which electrochemical reaction between steel and the aqueous phase occurs. The fluid became acidic when carbonic acid is formed when CO2 is mixed with water. The factors affecting CO2 corrosion includes increase in pH value, composition of the aqueous stream, temperature, flow condition, presence of non-aqueous phases, and metal characteristics. Iron carbide scale is formed as the protective scale on oil and gas pipe and the metal starts to corrode at the elevated temperature. CO2 corrosion can formed in two types which are pitting corrosion and mesa attack. Pitting corrosion is the rapid penetration with localized attack that creates small holes on the metal (Wikipedia) while mesa attack is the sharp pits that under medium flow condition. de Waard et al. was given the best mechanism of corrosion as

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