Internal Corrosion Solution for Gathering Production Gas Pipelines Involving Palm Oil Amide Based Corrosion Inhibitors

Abstract

A problem of uncontrolled internal corrosion of over 20 mpy was root cause analyzed within a system of pipelines connecting a set of oil wells onshore central Gulf of Mexico coastline. The root cause analysis was focused on a detailed characterization of the gas, mostly methane, and liquid phases, mostly genic waters as well as CO2, H2S, chlorides and MIC bacteria. The metallurgy of the corrosion damage over the steel pipeline involving both zone of uniform corrosion as well as special points of localized corrosion. In the past these pipelines received unsuccessful chemical treatments. Both the inhibitor and the dosage were not available. A trial of a new palm oil based corrosion inhibitor was performed. The corrosion inhibitor passed successful testing in the laboratory employing electrochemical testing by linear polarization resistance as well as harmonic analysis. The corrosion inhibitor formulation was furthermore adapted for massive fabrication involving a set of parallel variables from pipeline engineering such as foam formation elimination, not gel formation and other. The program was conducted producing improvements from the onset. Corrosion inhibitor injection was immediately and a program of pipeline cleaning was launched. In the first four months of the new corrosion inhibitor solution the results produced the desired target of overall compliance to the internal pipeline corrosion control specification below 2 mpy.