Evaluation of Corrosion Behavior of API-5L X52 Steel in Oilfield Formation Water with Inhibitors

Abstract

In oil industry, carbon steel pipelines are used for transporting the produced crude oil or produced formation water from wells to processing stations. This produced crude oil is not alone; it is flowing with the produced formation water, which is responsible for corrosion of carbon steel pipelines at service temperature in higher rates. The present study aimed to investigate the electrochemical behavior of corrosion of API 5L-X52 carbon steel grade, where the tested steel grade is immersed in uninhibited and inhibited oilfield formation produced water, which is brought from an Egyptian oilfield, at different applied temperatures, which simulate the oilfield’s service upstream temperatures. This investigation is applied using laboratory potentio-dynamic polarization and in-field weight loss measurements for comparison purposes. Results showed that corrosion rates of carbon steel increases with temperature till a certain degree and decreases with inhibitor concentration till also a certain value. Besides, the in-field weight loss technique gives more severe measured corrosion rate data than that measured by laboratory potentio-dynamic polarization technique.