Quantification of microbiologically influenced corrosion in injection water pipelines

TY - GEN

T1 - Quantification of microbiologically influenced corrosion in injection water pipelines

AU - Markfoged, Rikke

AU - Thomsen, Uffe Sognstrup

AU - Lam Choong Meng, Raymond

PY - 2017/3

Y1 - 2017/3

N2 - Pipelines for transferring pressurized seawater constitute a significant part of the network for enhancing oil recovery in many offshore oilfields. To maintain the integrity of the system it is important to mitigate corrosion in the pipeline, or consequently corrosion may cause the operational pressure to be lowered or, in a worst-case scenario, a pipeline failure. Water treatment is essential to mitigate corrosion, although the potential for microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) in injection water pipelines is assumed to be lower compared to oil or multiphase pipelines where nutrients are abundant and a higher temperature facilitates microbiological growth. Presence and activity of MIC-causing microorganisms were investigated in a 16" diameter and 9.6 km long injection water pipeline from the platforms Dan FF to Halfdan A and further to Halfdan B. Nitrate was added to the water and sampling of pigging debris from the pipeline showed that both sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB), nitrate-utilizing bacteria, and methanogens were present in significant numbers of 105-106 cells/g. Enrichment cultures of SRB showed that exponential growth occurred within 22 hours at 20 °C. The metabolic parameters will be implemented in a model to quantify more accurate determination of the MIC risk in injection water pipelines.

AB - Pipelines for transferring pressurized seawater constitute a significant part of the network for enhancing oil recovery in many offshore oilfields. To maintain the integrity of the system it is important to mitigate corrosion in the pipeline, or consequently corrosion may cause the operational pressure to be lowered or, in a worst-case scenario, a pipeline failure. Water treatment is essential to mitigate corrosion, although the potential for microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) in injection water pipelines is assumed to be lower compared to oil or multiphase pipelines where nutrients are abundant and a higher temperature facilitates microbiological growth. Presence and activity of MIC-causing microorganisms were investigated in a 16" diameter and 9.6 km long injection water pipeline from the platforms Dan FF to Halfdan A and further to Halfdan B. Nitrate was added to the water and sampling of pigging debris from the pipeline showed that both sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB), nitrate-utilizing bacteria, and methanogens were present in significant numbers of 105-106 cells/g. Enrichment cultures of SRB showed that exponential growth occurred within 22 hours at 20 °C. The metabolic parameters will be implemented in a model to quantify more accurate determination of the MIC risk in injection water pipelines.

KW - Cell specific activity

KW - Danish sector of the north sea

KW - MIC risk management

KW - Methanogens

KW - Microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC)

KW - Mitigation

KW - Nitrate injection

KW - Pipelines

KW - Reverse transcriptase qPCR (RT-qPCR)

KW - Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB)

KW - qPCR

M3 - Article in proceedings

SP - 3676

EP - 3685

BT - Corrosion Conference and Expo 2017

PB - NACE International

T2 - CORROSION 2017

Y2 - 26 March 2017 through 30 March 2017

ER -