Excluding dissolved oxygen from seawater is an integral part of an environmental-friendly process for wealth creation in Saudi Arabia and energy delivery to the world. A facility on the shores of the Arabian Gulf treats seawater for water flooding of oil reservoirs to help produce petroleum. Using seawater helps preserve finite aquifer water endowments in a country with scarce renewable water supplies.

Excluding dissolved oxygen from seawater is an industrial water treatment function that entails challenges and costs in management, corrosion inspection, and process assurance. Not only at the facility. This function has national cost tradeoffs, being in a country with sparse water resources. It also has global cost tradeoffs, being in the leading global oil exporting country.

Excluding dissolved oxygen from seawater is fraught with challenges from the treatment plant to injection pumps. At the facility operating since 1978, a first of its kind corrosion-related failure occurred in 2012. The corrosion site was a deaerator column that removes the dissolved oxygen from seawater. Its shell is protected from corrosion by a coating system and nearly one hundred sacrificial anodes. At one of twenty-eight deaerators, three pin-hole leaks developed in areas of corrosion of vertical position, extending from the top tray level to four inches higher. Of the ten anodes placed there, only four were anode metal rods were intact on the shell while the anodes were completely consumed. All other anode metal rods had fallen with anodes just partially consumed.

This paper details what happened, reconstructs how it happened, and addresses why it happened from a technical point of view. It investigates sieve tray vibration, anode integrity, and possible excessive water turbulence. Furthermore, it outlines the system of operating conditions, maintenance practices and engineering support that have been recommended to prevent recurrence in other modules. The paper places this failure in the context of costs relating to the facility and its local and global impact.

Subject
Acids, Costs, Water, Pipelines, Seawater, Reservoirs, Personnel, Mechanical failure, Nitrogen, Dissolved oxygen, Deaerators, Anodes, Oil
Keywords:
Seawater Treatment, Reservoir Injection, Deoxygenation, Sieve Trays, Sacrificial Anodes
© 2014 Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of AMPP. Positions and opinions advanced in this work are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AMPP. Responsibility for the content of the work lies solely with the author(s).
2014
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
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