Identification and Characterization of Planktonic and Sessile Consortium Associated with Microbiologically Influenced Corrosion (MIC) In the Oil and Gas Industry

SOLER, M J; SAAVEDRA, A; PAGLIARICCI M.C.; FERNANDEZ, F A; VARGAS W A

Congreso; NACE Corrosion Conference; 2021

In Oil and Gas (O&G) facilities, it is estimated until a 40% of failures are due to corrosion induced by microorganisms (MIC). These microorganisms remain in planktonic or sessile form and a high diversity of metabolisms can be found. In the present study, planktonic and sessile microbial consortia were isolated and characterized from production waters of unconventional and conventional process. The water production showed major presence of the genus Halanaerobium (94.2%) and Arcobacter (73.6%) in sample of unconventional and conventional processes respectively. In the culture media formulated, Halanaerobium (68%) and genera Desulfovibrio (33.8%), Geotoga (33.3%), Proteiniphilum (30.89%) were found in a higher proportion for unconventional and conventional processes respectively. All these microbial genera have been reported as related to MIC. On the other hand, the biofilm formation was characterized by SEM-EDS and electrochemical techniques, using its ability of MIC in carbon steel; showing that the unconventional microbial consortium slightly higher corrosion capacity (2.35 mm/y) than the conventional microbial consortium (1.25 mm/y). These results represent the synergy of the different metabolisms that interact in the MIC-related communities, such as thiosulfate and sulfate reduction, iron oxidation/reduction and acid production microorganisms in unconventional and conventional processes.