Understanding corrosion of flexible pipes at subsea oil and gas wells

[...]after dissecting pipes that have ruptured in the field, researchers have learned that corrosion resulting from such a collision is caused by seawater interacting with carbon dioxide that originally seeped into the pipe from the production fluid, not oxygen gas introduced following an accident....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:MRS bulletin 2018-09, Vol.43 (9), p.654-655
Main Authors: Fellet, Melissae, Nyborg, Rolf
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied and Technical Physics
Carbon dioxide
Characterization and Evaluation of Materials
Corrosion
Energy Materials
Energy Quarterly
Energy Sector Analysis
Flexible pipes
Fluids
Gas industry
Gas wells
Gases
High density polyethylenes
Materials Engineering
Materials Science
Nanotechnology
Natural gas
Natural gas reserves
Oil reserves
Permeability
Polymers
Researchers
Wire
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Summary:[...]after dissecting pipes that have ruptured in the field, researchers have learned that corrosion resulting from such a collision is caused by seawater interacting with carbon dioxide that originally seeped into the pipe from the production fluid, not oxygen gas introduced following an accident. Because of this mechanism of internal corrosion, researchers have even found corroded wires in undamaged flexible pipes examined after a decade of operation. Corrosion in undamaged flexible pipes begins at the polymer liner surrounding the innermost steel carcass of a flexible pipe. Since this liner is in contact with fluid from the well bore, carbon dioxide and water vapor from the production fluid seep through it. Carbon dioxide dissolved in that water produces carbonic acid, H2CO3, which reacts with iron in the steel to generate iron(II) and carbonate ions. Because there is a high surface area of exposed steel compared to the volume of water covering it, these dissolved ions quickly react to form a precipitate of iron carbonate. Companies such as Airborne Oil & Gas and Magma produce flexible pipes for the oil and gas industry by winding layers of composite reinforced with glass or carbon fibers around a polymer liner.
ISSN:0883-7694
1938-1425
DOI:10.1557/mrs.2018.214