Study the Effect of Corrosion on the Pipes of Oil Well Production

Abstract

Corrosion costs of the oil industry are billions of dollars in a year. Corrosion affects every aspect ofexploration and production of oil, from offshore rigs to casing and transporting the crude oil torefinery or exporting terminal. This study aims to investigate the effect of sulfur content on thecorrosion of carbon steel and composite material (polyester/fiberglass) pipes used in wellproduction. .In the present work three specimens of pipes from (Al – Nasiriyah oil field, Al – Daura refinery, andcomposite material) are prepared in the center of the training and workshop in university oftechnology with (3, and 5 mm) thickness and (30 mm) diameter which immersed in different typesof Iraqi crude oil field (East – Baghdad, Al – Nasiriyah, and Al – Rumaila field) in different times (0,14, 28, 42, and 56 day). Physical properties (viscosity, density, API grade, specific gravity (sp.gr),sulfur %, sediment %, and water %) of three types of Iraqi crude oil are tested in lab of petroleumtechnology department. Also study specimens of pipes by microscope to knowing the effect ofsulfur % on these specimens. .The results showed that when increasing duration of immersed pipes and sulfur content in crude oilincreased the rate of corrosion, and the composite material pipe gives the best result compared withthe other two specimens pipes used because they didn’t influenced by corrosion when immersed inIraqi crude oil. Also, it was noted that the diffusion coefficient decreased in composite pipecompared with the other pipes.