- Title
- Internal corrosion of parked steel oil pipelines
- Creator
- Melchers, Robert E.
- Relation
- Australasian Corrosion Association Annual Conference: Corrosion and Prevention 2015, ACA 2015 (2015). Proceedings of the Australasian Corrosion Association Annual Conference: Corrosion and Prevention 2015 (Adelaide, S.A. 15-18 November, 2015)
- Publisher
- Australasian Corrosion Association (ACA)
- Resource Type
- conference paper
- Date
- 2015
- Description
- Internal corrosion of steel pipelines before use, or temporarily taken out of use, and 'parked' on the seafloor for some time (months) continues to be an issue for offshore operators. This is irrespective of whether the pipes are oil production or water injection pipelines. Most commonly, severe pitting corrosion is observed at the 6 o'clock position. The conventional wisdom is that this is the result of microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC). Indeed high concentrations of various bacteria have been found in the rusts in these pipes. The usual response is dosing with biocides but such treatment has been found to be not always very effective. It also may have environmental consequences if released to the sea when the pipe is put back into service or is abandoned. This paper reviews the available open literature on this topic and compares with previous findings for the severe internal corrosion at the 6 o'clock position sometimes found for water injection pipelines. This earlier work shows that periods of stagnant conditions with deposition of rusts and other debris at the bottom of (near-) horizontal pipes is the most likely reason for the severe corrosion sometimes observed. MIC can contribute to that corrosion but is not necessarily the major influence. Much depends on water quality. It is proposed that there are considerable similarities in the corrosion behaviour of parked oil pipelines and water injection pipelines and that there are considerable avenues for further research and development.
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1315253
- Identifier
- uon:22922
- Identifier
- ISBN:9781510822573
- Language
- eng
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