Aspects of CO2 Corrosion in Oil and Gas Industry

Natural gas is most likely contains carbon dioxide as part from reservoir fluid composition, on other hand CO2 can be injected for enhanced oil recovery purposes. As such, corrosion control in carbon dioxide containing media is area of concern for oil field industries. Process operating parameters, especially temperature, pressure and fluid composition, are generally contributing to corrosion behavior for such conditions. Extensive investigation studies had been carried out to understand and control CO2 corrosion. CO2 dissolves in oil wells produced water forming carbonic acid which in turn dissociates and decrease the solution pH. The nature of oxide/passive film resulted from a corrosion process contributes to the overall behavior of it as well as temperature and chemical composition of the aqueous media. Surfactants are most likely corrosion inhibitors employed in the petroleum industry to protect iron and steel equipment used in drilling, production, transport and refining of hydrocarbons. The efficiency of the applied corrosion inhibitor depends on its concentration and stability of the formed inhibition film on metal surface.