Stainless steels are frequently used in the oil & gas industry due to their excellent resistance against corrosion. In seawater and produced water, however, pitting and/or crevice corrosion can occur assuming the process conditions are outside the so-called “safe operation window” for the actual alloy. In produced water, oxygen content is one important process parameter. It is well known that in electrolytes with small amounts of oxygen (O2 < 10 ppbw), stainless steels can be used at much higher temperatures than in seawater saturated with oxygen (∼ 8 ppmw O2). In this paper, the effect of temperature, pH and chloride content on crevice corrosion and repassivation potential in simulated produced water without oxygen is examined for UNS(1) S31603, UNS S31803 and UNS S32750. The tests showed that both temperature and chloride ion concentration strongly affected the results.

You do not currently have access to this content.