Corrosion Mechanism of Typical Shale Gas Gathering and Transportation Pipelines in Southwest China

Abstract

The shale gas surface gathering and transportation pipeline in southwest China has experienced serious internal corrosion, which affects the production of shale gas wells and has great potential safety hazards. To find out the corrosion type and corrosion mechanism, the corrosion analysis and mechanism research of gathering and transportation pipelines are carried out, including corrosion morphology observation, corrosion product analysis, fluid mechanics calculation, etc. The results show that the corrosion products of the gathering and transportation pipeline are mainly FeCO3 with high S content, and the corrosion type is sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) and CO2 corrosion. At the same time, the corrosion pits are mainly distributed on the approach stream side, which is closely related to the scouring effect of the medium flow in the vertical branch pipe on the wall surface of the tee. The corrosion weight loss test shows that the corrosion rate of sterile solution is significantly lower than that of bacterium solution, indicating that the presence of SRB significantly expedites the corrosion of materials.