Predicting Microbially Influenced Corrosion (MIC) in Seawater Injection Systems

Abstract

Abstract Many operators have encountered failures due to MIC in seawater injection systems contaminated with sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB). In some cases, severe pitting and grooves have resulted in flowlines being abandoned or replaced. On the other hand, there are reports of little or no significant MIC in some systems, despite significant contamination with SRB being confirmed. As all the systems are of similar design, transport seawater and employ organic biocide treatments, it may sometimes seem that incidents of MIC are a case of luck rather than judgement. A qualitative model is presented which predicts when conditions within the system will allow MIC to proceed. The model involves two phases. Firstly a biotic phase which predicts the time required for a sulphide film to develop. Secondly, an abiotic phase which considers three parameters that may stimulate the initiation of MIC pits. The model can be made semi-quantitative by introducing a constant for pitting rate. The ability to predict (even if only qualitatively) the probability of MIC under a given set of circumstances (e.g. different biocide applications, pigging programmes, etc.) during the planning stage of a seawater flood project could significantly improve the development of control strategies. It is anticipated that the development of such models could allow a corrosion management system to predict and monitor the mitigation of MIC risk. Currently, the use of MIC risk assessment models is not widespread and most MIC monitoring, at best, estimates biocide efficacy only. Whilst biocide efficacy monitoring is an important control, it is not corrosion management. The model allows for ongoing review of the MIC risk once monitoring data is available.