Sour Corrosion and Cracking in the Oil and Gas Sector

Abstract Sour corrosion and cracking damage due to hydrogen sulphide is a common theme across many processes, materials, equipment types, and industries. Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) also represents a significant health and safety risk if a failure results in a leak. Sour damage mechanisms can sometimes manifest where they were not expected due to contamination or when process and operating conditions change. This paper presents a variety of sour damage mechanisms, both corrosion and cracking, which resulted in failures of industrial equipment in pipelines, refining, oil and gas, and fertilizer facilities. The information covers natural gas dehydration vessels and piping, thermowell damage, steam boiler tube corrosion, storage tanks, heater coils, and sour gas pipelines. This paper discusses the diagnosis of widespread sour corrosion, the effects of cyclic changing conditions, sulphidation damage, polythionic acid stress corrosion cracking, sulphide stress cracking, and hydrogen induced cracking. Strategies to avoid the damage are included, where applicable.