Corrosive Effect of Formation Water in Petroleum with High Contents of CO2 on Steel Pipelines

Abstract

The corrosion of the carbon steel pipelines of petroleum, is a serious problem, because big economic and material losses take place and in some cases damages to productive lands. The purpose of this work is to determine the aggressiveness of the formation water of the petroleum contaminated with CO2 (g), on the construction steel of the pipelines, keeping in mind the variations of temperature that happens during the course of petroleum. The Linear Polarization Resistance (LPR) was used to determine the corrosion rate of the steel. It was demonstrated that the increase of the temperature and the saturation condition of CO2 in the formation water of the petroleum, increase the corrosion in the steel. The spectra of electrochemical noise results and the localization index calculated demonstrate the presence of corrosion located in the API 5L X - 52 steel surface. This result was complemented by the Optic Microscopy technique that allowed corroborating the poor adherence of the layers that were deposited on the metal and the appearance of located events increases in the environment that was investigated with the increment of the temperature and CO2 concentration.