Overview: Production/Facilities (December 2006)

Abstract

Welcome back to the Production/Facilities feature. This issue focuses on environmental and corrosion challenges. These challenges are especially important because the global production infrastructure is aging, with much of it more than 30 years old. These issues are, of course, intertwined because the materials and corrosion engineer spends much of his/her time preventing the produced fluids from escaping into the environment. This issue delves into new or revitalized developments in produced-water treatment. Concern has been mounting over the years regarding the effect on the environment of chemical treatments used by the industry when the chemicals are discharged with produced water, for example. New "green" corrosion inhibitors have been developed. As well as preventing corrosion in susceptible materials, the materials and corrosion engineer also must be able to assess the effect of any corrosion that has occurred. State-of-the-art calculation of the corrosion rate is available. Also, a new approach has been developed to assess the internal condition of a pipeline accurately. A low-cost water-purification treatment has been used in the sewage-treatment industry for many decades. It is being transferred to the petroleum industry. The use of reed beds is common as an alternative waste water treatment in remote areas. This method is being used in the Nimr field, onshore Oman. Essentially, the reeds capture the impurities through the root system, where they are held in the plant tissue. The plants then can be harvested and used as biomass fuel, for example, and the residual ash, which contains the inorganic impurities, can be disposed of safely. Production/Facilities additional reading available at the SPE eLibrary: www.spe.org SPE 100673 "Assessment and Comparison of CO2-Corrosion Prediction Models" by R.C. Woollam, BP plc, et al. SPE 98854 "The Path to Zero Flaring in Zadco" by M.M. Misellati, Zadco, et al. SPE 100412 "Prediction Equation of CO2 Corrosion With the Presence of Acetic Acid" by M.C. Ismail, U. Teknologi Petronas, et al. SPE 103922 "Internal-Corrosion Direct Assessment for Multiphase-Flow Pipeline Systems" by P.G. Puente, SPE, Scandpower PT, et al. IPTC 10548 "Produced-Water-Management Strategy Water-Injection Best Practices—Design, Performance, Monitoring" by A.S. Abou-Sayed, Advantek Intl. Corp., et al.