Controlling reservoir souring is critical to successful production and asset protection in hydrocarbon recovery. Nitrate injection has been used in water flooding for controlling biogenic sulfide in oil reservoirs. Souring control via nitrate implementation is based on the interactions between nitrate-reducing bacteria (NRB) and sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB). As a result, it is important to understand how the NRB and SRB population profile controls the effectiveness of nitrate on SRB growth, sulfide levels, and corrosion.

In laboratory studies, the impact of NRB (including denitrifiers (N2NRB) and nitrite-producing NRB (NO2NRB)) and SRB (including SRB with and without nitrate-reducing ability) composition on nitrate effectiveness was evaluated. A stationary testing method and a porous media flow reactor method were used for these studies. The effect of different NRB, including NO2NRB and sulfide-oxidizing NRB (SONRB) on corrosion of carbon steel beads in the presence and absence of nitrate was also investigated using porous media flow reactors. It was found that the effectiveness of nitrate on sulfide level, SRB growth, and metal corrosion can be dynamically affected by the composition of SRB and NRB present in the testing systems.

Subject
Hydrogen sulfide, Porous media, Composition, Bacterial growth, Nitrites, Reactors, Beads, Souring, Nitrates, Sulfide concentration, Corrosion inhibitors, Sulfides, Risk reduction
Keywords:
Souring, nitrate, nitrate-reducing bacteria, sulfate-reducing bacteria
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2017
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
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