Clarion Technical Conferences
Microbiological Corrosion in Pipelines Course
Microbiological Corrosion in Pipelines Course


Microbiological Corrosion in Pipelines Program


Basics of Corrosion and Microbiology

Why do metals corrode
Electrochemistry of corrosion of steel and other metals
Corrosion resistant materials
Prevention by coatings, cathodic protection, inhibition, impact of system design

What are microorganisms: bacteria and fungi
Aerobic, facultative and anaerobic bacteria
Chemotrophic and heterotrophic growth
Overview of microorganisms active in the oil and gas industry, e.g. iron oxidizing bacteria, oil degrading bacteria, acid producers, sulfate reducing, cladisporium resinae, etc.)
Growth rates
Food sources and limiting nutrients.

Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB)
Historical data on the detection and behavior
Occurrence in seawaters, sediments and soils
Mechanism of sulfate reduction
Nature of hydrogen sulfide and iron sulfides and their interactions

How SRB interact with other organisms, biofilm development, overview of enumerating the numbers of SRB and associated organisms
Planktonic and sessile bacteria
Vegetative SRB in established sulphide corrosion cells

Corrosion by SRBs
The early Dutch theory
The ‘Nature’ theory
Areas of uncertainty
Variables that control the rate of corrosion of steel
Nature and impact of biogenerated sulfides.
X-ray analysis of sulfides as a guide to corrosion duration.
Reservoir souring by SRB
Historical evidence of reservoir souring
Critical parameters
Sources of the organisms
Reservoir cooling
Sulfide production
Sulfide accumulation in produced fluids
SRB corrosion and growth in seawater injection systems
SRB growth and corrosion in oil production systems
Checklist for evaluating risk of SRB growth in crude oil pipelines
SRB growth and activity in soils and sediments and sour muds
Redox potentials, bacterial counts
Checklist for evaluating sediments and soils for risk of SRB.


Case histories of SRB corrosion
External corrosion and internal corrosion
Typical corrosion rates experienced
Operator methods used to prevent continued corrosion.

Predicting internal corrosion of pipelines by SRB
Pipelines at risk
Checklist for evaluation of risk of SRB corrosion
Limitations of growth and activity
Deciding priorities for inspection of pipeline networks. Location of growth of SRB
Pipeline profile
Water cut
Product flow rate and water settlement
Effect of internal roughness
Typical pipeline failure mechanisms.
Combining activity and population estimates to improve evaluation of SRB risk.

Monitoring and testing methods for SRB, including planktonic and sessile bacteria
Testing sludges and waters collected from cleaning pigs
Typical biofilm composition
Extraction of bacteria from biofilms
Impact of flow and water cut on biofilm development
Bioprobes and where to locate them
Frequency of evaluation
Trend analysis
Serial dilution techniques
Most probable numbers from multiple dilutions
Agar gel techniques
Typical commercial media packages
Limitations of standard growth media
Newly developed media
Techniques of making media on site
Techniques for evaluating associated micro-organisms.
Rapid enumeration techniques including visual and fluorescence microscopy, ATP fluorescence, hydrogenase evaluation, desulfoviridin, radiotracer sulfate, APS reductase, monoclonal antibodies
Commercial packages
Associated chemical testing: sulfate, fatty acids, iron and manganese counts, corrosion patterns and use of counts to estimate corrosion rates
Common misconceptions in setting control parameters for water and oil systems

Control of SRB

Treatment to control SRB
Cleaning pipelines
Biocide treatments in water systems
Biocide treatment of oil systems
Effectiveness of corrosion inhibitors
Use of UV sterilization
Synergism between biocide blends

Selection of biocides
Synergism between biocide and surfactant
The critical biocidal concentration
Biocide regimes
Evaluating the effectiveness of a biocide regime
Biocide consumption
Chromatographic effects
End of the line evaluations
Re-population rates
Use of pigging as an adjunct to chemical treatment
Re-establishment of corrosion inhibitor films

Prevention of external corrosion by SRB
Impact of SRB on coatings
Calcareous backfill in the pipeline trench
Cathodic protection
Consumption of sacrificial anodes by SRB in sour sediments and soils

Possible future developments

Encouraging alternative competitive organisms
Continuous and semi-continuous biocide treatments
Possible on-line continuous monitoring techniques, e.g. electrochemical potential noise
Radiotracer evaluations

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Clarion Technical Conferences

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The course will provide a complete and up-to-date overview of the area of Microbiological Corrosion in Pipelines.


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