Internal Corrosion mechanisms in O&G facilities and their correlations with the existing microbiome

PAGLIARICCI M.C.; ARIAS, O.R.; CARFI G.; MORRIS W.; VARGAS W A

Buenos Aires

Congreso; LatinCorr 2018; 2018

NACE International

An integral characterization of MIC patterns for an Early ProductionFacility (EPF) belonging to an unconventional production system from Neuquen,Argentina, is presented. The records of in-line inspection (ILI) and ultra sound analysisrevealed severe under deposit corrosion with MIC-related morphology along thepipeline. However, traditional microbial studies to test for sulphate reducingbacteria (SRB) were negative, suggesting the absence of corrosive microbes. By using the novel 16S metagenomics approach for total microbial DNA analysis,in flowback water and solid deposits samples, we were able to identify the wholemicrobiome present in the facility. The most abundant microorganism detected (upto 96%) belonged to the genus Halanaerobiumsp. This bacterial genus includes species of halophilic and thermotolerant bacteria,that reduce thiosulfate to sulfide. Importantly, the metabolic activity of Halanaerobium (FeS precipitation) in thesamples under study was evidenced by incubation in liquid medium amended withsodium thiosulfate. The complete microbial community assessment together with the pipelineintegrity inspection evidenced that the most abundant MIC-related microorganismfound in corrosion products were non SRB. These findings provided corrosionengineers with novel tools to develop risk maps in order to mitigate microbialeffects in O&G facilities.