SPE Corrosion Modelling
Basgan Edeleanu conference room, Petrom City 06 Feb 2019, from 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
The global oil industry continues to see a growth in the number of aging wells being operated, with ranges between 40-60 years of production history, wells becoming more critical in terms of integrity, especially due to corrosion of subsurface tubular components.
Many recent well’s failure due to tubing/casing corrosion are noted, leading to huge repairing costs and production loses, making necessary to advance to a more proactive model, which can offer a predictive corrosion model for our well integrity management.
The SPE Corrosion Modeling symposium had the scope to expand on how in the Digital Oil Field era we seek for a preventive sub-surface corrosion monitoring solution that may assist in predicting the corrosion – erosion of structural components of the well that can lead to a loss of well integrity.
Event Agenda
Welcome and Introduction
The event started with an introduction from Mr. Dragomir Alexandru, SPE Romanian Section Chairperson, who talked about the importance of well integrity and the preventive measures needed in order to assure safe and responsible approach for oil & gas production.
Figure 1 – Alexandru Dragomir, SPE Romanian Section Chairperson
The event continued with the introduction of the guests, done by Mr. Radu Patrascu, SPE Romanian Section Program Chairperson.
Figure 2 – Radu Patrascu, SPE Romanian Section Program Chairperson
The first speaker, Mrs. Felicia Cirstian made an introduction into Corrosion Modelling and the necessity of being able to predict that weak spots in the production systems.
Figure 3 – Mrs. Felicia Cirstian, Well Integrity Engineer, OMV Petrom
Considering the multitude of parameters determining the failures of subsurface components due to corrosion, it is very important which criteria are chosen to model and predict corrosion rates and the remaining lifetime. Corrosion modeling may by used in determining the corrosion conditions for a proper Inhibition selection. Or used as an economic tool to determine the most effective materials to complete a well depending on the well conditions or further planning.
Petroleum industry is deeply confronting with issues like pitting corrosion, galvanic corrosion, bacterial corrosion and uniform corrosion, due to the fact that historic well completion is based on metal materials, mostly Carbon steel, being vulnerable to corrosion.
One of the basic Corrosion model is considered DeWaard-Milliams equation, also known as the CO2 corrosion nomogram. Digitalization Era created opportunities and many companies are currently progressing individually with digitalizing corrosion models. Currently there were developed several basic computer applications used for corrosion modeling, each one designated for specific purposes:
– ECE – developed by Intertech – focused for material selection for oil and gas well completion and pipelines;
– USL – Calgary University – focused on Predicting Corrosion Rates in Gas Wells Containing CO2.
Next speaker was Mr. Cristian Vasile, Eastern Europe Sales Account, Cameron Surface Systems who talked about the key elements of erosion particle velocity, angle of impingement, size and density of particulates and surface hardness of flow bore.
Figure 4 – Mr. Cristian Vasile, Eastern Europe Sales Account, Cameron Surface Systems
He presented a case study of a recent challenge to identify and understand the nature of elements which acting on a christmas tree, inducing a leak between the christmas tree body and wing valve. In order to do so, a corrosion model was created to simulate different scenarios, which will predict and prevent the behavior of produced fluids with solids. Based on the discoveries, a new christmas tree was recommended and setup.
The last presentation was done by Mr. Maciej Pawlowski, Senior Petrophysicist at Weatherford who presented methods of corrosion monitoring using logging tools. The collected data was used to cread a 360 degree view of tubulars, which further was converted in 3D model, helping to visualize the corrosion through all the length of the well.
Figure 5 – Mr. Maciej Pawlowski, Senior Petrophysicist, Weatherford
To create the model, a set of logging tools were used, the multisensory caliper, the sonic tool (for casing and cement inspection) and magnetic tool (used for quantifying the casing defects). Of course to use all this data, a software was used that converted all this data into easy to asses corrosion model.
We thank all the guests from OMV Petrom, Cameron and Weatherford for their participation at the SPE Corrosion Modelling event, being always open to share their experience and case histories. This type of events help engineers for upstream to make decisions and find solutions to prevent the corrosion through better methods.
We thank OMV Petrom for letting us hosting the event in the Petrom City.
Thank you to all attendees.