ABSTRACT
One of the recent challenges faced by the oil and gas industry includes the need to reduce operational costs by developing new, cost-effective combined scale and corrosion inhibitors, with similar or improved performance compared to the existing products in the market place. Most combined scale and corrosion inhibitors are individually tested for either scale or corrosion inhibition performance. In some cases, this can compromise the corrosion testing, as often the brine chemistry needs to be altered to minimise the contributing effects of scaling on corrosion inhibition assessments. Despite this being a proven approach for combined products evaluation, it does not offer much flexibility in terms of product optimisation and cost reduction without significant lengthy test work.
A new approach has been developed to simultaneously test the scale and corrosion inhibition process using the linear polarisation resistance technique (LPR), inductively coupled plasma (ICP) and surface characterisation techniques: Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectrophotometer (EDXS). The results obtained in this study showed that this new methodology could be used for the quick and effective design of cost effective combined scale and corrosion products, while also providing a better understanding of the mechanisms of inhibition and kinetics happening during simultaneous scale and corrosion processes.
INTRODUCTION
There are various challenges associated with oil and gas production and processing, namely flow assurance, integrity management and fluid separation. Chemical and non-chemical solutions are employed by the operators as standard industrial practices to address the operational issues to ensure continuous production. As the exploration and production of oil and gas has moved into more arduous and remote environment, this drives the development of more advance and novel solutions to cope with the harsher and more challenging conditions; with which production chemical technology was evolved as a parts of the development processes. In addition, operational cost reduction to improve cost performance has been the main focus of oil and gas industry over the past few years in order to maximise the returns for the operators.
