Corrosion Failures in Oil and Gas Fields: Review and Case Study

Corrosion failures are most common in the oil and gas fields. Pipelines carrying oil and gas resources that suffer corrosion severely threaten the economy. High operating pressures and corrosion can drastically reduce the structural integrity and shorten the service life of pipelines. The major types of corrosion in the oil and gas industry are sour corrosion, sweet corrosion, oxygen corrosion, crevice corrosion, galvanic corrosion, erosion corrosion, stress corrosion cracking (SCC), and microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC). The purpose of this paper is to briefly review the basic types of corrosion and place much of the focus on the MIC- especially in stainless steel and carbon steel piping applications. Even though standard stainless-steel grades used in oil and gas pipelines have considerable corrosion resistance, MIC may severely affect their integrity by the action of microorganisms. Three cases of MIC are addressed and discussed. Two cases of stainless steel pipes, AISI 304 and 316LN; and one case of 5L grade A pipes. The leaking and perforation of the pipe and tube wall occurred 3 months after the hydro-test with bacteria-infected water. The damage rate was extremely high in carbon and stainless steel pipes, indicating that stainless steel is not immune to bacterial-assisted corrosion. The preventive actions of the MIC in these cases were also presented.