Motivation and Goals
Erosion and corrosion problems in oil and gas production cost the petroleum industry hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Severe damage has occurred to tubing, flow lines, pipe fittings, headers, valves, pumps, and other production equipment. Erosion/corrosion problems are associated with production velocities and are most severe when production velocities are high.
To date, the most effective countermeasures involve using expensive erosion/corrosion-resistant alloys, inhibitors, coatings, or placing limitations on production and flow velocities. These solutions can be very costly, and work has been directed toward helping producers control the costs and lost production associated with erosion/corrosion damage.
Oil and gas companies seek design and operating guidelines that will allow them to economically maximize production rates. Current guidelines are based on a recommended “erosional velocity” limitation described by The American Petroleum Institute Recommended Practice 14E (API RP 14E), which does not recognize many of the important factors contributing to erosion and corrosion damages. For example, the RP 14E guideline does not account for solid particles contained in the flow, corrosivity of the fluid, formation and removal of corrosion scale, type of metal used in equipment, geometries of fittings and production equipment, fluid viscosity, and flow regime.
The overall goal of the Erosion/Corrosion Research Center (E/CRC) is to generalize the “erosional velocity” limitation described by the RP 14E to account for additional factors not currently included. To achieve this goal, experimental data defining the effects of flow velocity on the erosion and corrosion are needed for many flow conditions, flow geometrics, alloys, flow regimes and other properties of interest. To date, results from experiments and modeling are being combined to develop a procedure for generalizing API RP 14E for sand erosion, CO2 corrosion and erosion-corrosion.
Research projects on sand erosion are focused on predicting the maximum penetration rates in tubing, flowlines, standard and long radius elbows, plugged tees, tees, chokes, reduces and expands. A procedure has been developed at the E/CRC to compute maximum penetration rates in elbows and tees in mils per year (mpy).
A user-friendly computer program called Sand Production Pipe Saver (SPPS) has been developed and has been distributed to the member companies of the E/CRC. An SPE paper demonstrates simple applications of this computer program.
The research on CO2 corrosion is experimental and theoretical. A CO2 corrosion prediction computer program has been developed at the E/CRC. The program ,called SPPS CO2 is based on extensive experimental data gathered at the E/CRC and mechanistic modeling of the corrosion process. The computer program can be used to compute corrosion rates at different CO2 partial pressures, different pH values, and in different pipe geometries.
The research projects on erosion/corrosion use experimental data and computer modeling. Testing in a three-phase flow miniloop (water, oil, and sand under CO2 pressure) is performed to provide the experimental base for developing production velocity guidelines and design guidelines for sweet production when sand is present. The testing and data have been used to identify three flow velocity zones of erosion/corrosion in an elbow. User-friendly computer program has been written to implement the procedures on a PC computer program. This program is called SPPS E-C. All these “user friendly” computer programs are available to the members of the E/CRC.
Our work is very applied and directed toward the needs of member companies. The topics are identified by members through spring and fall meetings, planning sessions, and questionnaires. As a cooperative program with 16 member companies, each company receives 100% of the results or about 6% of the cost.
Membership Fees
Fees to Join E/CRC The fee for joining the Erosion/Corrosion Research Center for 2018-2019 academic year (July 1 to June 30th) is $31,500 with a one-time equipment fee of $21,000. The first year is $51,000. Each year thereafter, renewing companies only pay the annual membership renewing fee.
Member Companies
Anadarko
Aramco
BHP Billiton
BP America Inc.
Chevron
ConocoPhillips, Inc.
DNV – Det Norske Veritas (USA), Inc
ENI SPA Exploration & Product
ExxonMobil
Hess
Occidental Oil and Gas Corporation
Petrobras/Cenpes
Petronas
Repsol
Schlumberger Reservoir Completions
Shell
Single Buoy Moorings (now Schlumberger)
TechnipFMC
Vetco Gray Scandinavia AS (GE Oil)
Woodside Energy Ltd