Corrosion Inhibition Treatment to Extend Electrical Submersible Pump Run Times

Abstract

Cable failure and corrosion are two important modes of failure for electrical submersible pumps (ESP) especially for ESP working in high temperature, high shear, and saline environments with carbon dioxide . About 5 % of pump failures are attributed due to corrosion . High total dissolved solids (TDS) in the well fluid create conductive and corrosive conditions that can "lead to tubular and structural pitting, scattered pitting and crevice corrosion as often is seen in pulled equipment" . In Algeria, the majority of problems with ESP systems relate to salt deposition, corrosion, and the quality of dilution water. Electrical failures are among the main source of failure in high TDS, H2S environments. In this manuscript, the development and implementation of corrosion inhibitor treatments to prevent two forms of corrosion issues. One form of corrosion is inside of production tubulars under high temperature, high shear saline environments with carbon dioxide. The other form of corrosion issues is outside of production tubulars on external tubing walls and ESP cables armours under high temperature high pressure and possibly oxygen contaminated CO2 environment. The brines used in this work . For internal corrosion on tubings and ESP parts, corrosion tests were done using a high temperature small autoclave test and jet impingement. The small autoclave test setup allows measurement of corrosion rate using linear polarization resistance (LPR) method with a three electrode system where the counter and reference electrodes are Hastelloy C276 .