Prevention of Hydrogen Assisted Damage in Sour Service

Abstract

Hydrogen assisted cracking (HAC) could lead to catastrophic failures in oil and gas industry piping and pressurized equipment with consequences ranging from heavy financial impact to fatality. Wet sour hydrocarbon services could lead to catastrophic consequences ranging from loss of lives to a heavy financial impact. This paper provides effective measures on raw plate/coil and pipes manufacturing and testing processes to eliminate susceptibility to avoid the occurrence of HAC failures including hydrogen-induced cracking (HIC), stress oriented HIC and sulfide stress cracking. These techniques include the following measures: (1) Quality control of plate/coil (raw product) manufacturing process and testing requirements, (2) quality control of pipe (finished product) manufacturing process and testing requirements, and (3) pipe selection criteria and field application quality control. Implementation of these requirements will result in enhanced oil and gas plants’ safety/reliability, reduced maintenance/inspection costs, and unnecessary usage of corrosion mitigation methods, such as cladding, coating or inhibition systems. Case histories are included in this paper to illustrate the root causes of HAC.